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Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

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Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#121

Post by foepys »

dnautics wrote: post #87
selectodude wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the best funded public transit services are substantial money losers. Paris covers 70 cents of every dollar, Madrid 60 cents, and even in Berlin and Munich its 30 cents. But that covers 100 percent of their expenses. If Uber had to shell out to fix the streets that they use, I bet it wouldn't be so cheap.

Singapore's public transit system is run as a for profit (two competing companies, in fact), and it's one of the best and cheapest in the world.

Considering that you can't just buy a car in Singapore and need to get a permit to buy one, it better should be the best in the world.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#122

Post by slowmotiony »

njovin wrote: post #107
stephencoyner wrote: post #99

Waiting longer for a ride... So... A bus?

Not having to stop a dozen times between pickup and destination makes it quite a bit better than a bus IMO.

Also no homeless people or crackheads inside

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#123

Post by woolvalley »

selectodude wrote: post #85
Pyxl101 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Uber had to shell out to fix the streets that they use, I bet it wouldn't be so cheap. Streets are public infrastructure and are paid for by taxes, which Uber and all other companies that do business using roads presumably pay, just like everyone else. So, unless you have a specific reason to believe otherwise, it is fair to assume that yes, Uber is paying for the streets that they use. If streets are not being…

>Uber is paying for the streets that they use. Uber doesn't pay a cent in gas taxes (they're not employees, they're partners, right?), and since they've never made money before, they don't pay a cent in taxes either.

The drivers pay gas taxes, and the majority of the revenue goes to the drivers. Therefore car activity that uber induces is also paid for by the customers that use it. Basic induction. What you are doing is like complaining about amazon or the local grocer inducing truck demand and not paying for the roads.

It's a bit obvious you have a chip on your shoulder about Uber and ride share companies in general.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#124

Post by so33 »

stephencoyner wrote: post #110
njovin wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having to stop a dozen times between pickup and destination makes it quite a bit better than a bus IMO.

Less stops yes, but in Uber pools the stops can be incredibly inconvenient and made worse with poor drivers or riders, resulting in long rides. At least with a bus I get a well trained professional who is prepared for almost all scenarios. I also can estimate how long s bus will take, pools can be unpredictability long.

The idea of Uber Express Pool is set up so that you walk to a designated pickup point, wait, and walk from a designated drop-off point.

So, essentially, it's a tiny bus that makes stops along a route. But with less capacity than a bus and less consistent scheduling and routing.

(To be clear - I am pretty skeptical of the idea of demand-responsive "microtransit" such as Uber Express Pool).

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#125

Post by woolvalley »

cozzyd wrote: post #100
sidcool wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless, its impact has been way bigger than any public transit. That impact also has been both positive and negative.

The number of Uber/Lyft rides a day pales in comparison to the number of public transit rides.

The cost is also far less than transit. If we judged Uber by the same standards that we judged local transit costs, they would be ahead by quite a bit and fairly profitable. You could even increase the take home that drivers took and still come out ahead.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#126

Post by Ar-Curunir »

sidcool wrote: post #95
Ar-Curunir wrote: post #54

Uber is becoming more and more like public transit. Just took a few billion dollars and lots of hype for us to realise that...

Regardless, its impact has been way bigger than any public transit. That impact also has been both positive and negative.

Maybe in the bay area, where investment in public transit is abysmal. When I've visited cities with good public transit I've never felt the need for Uber/Lyft.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#127

Post by so33 »

anon84598 wrote: post #23
maerF0x0 wrote: post #16

I just wanted to drop a note to say I think Uber is doing a good job, all things considered. Many public transit companies have been around for decades and haven't figured out how to scale up to the kind of service Uber is providing. 4B rides in 2017 is pretty amazing. If I understand the math correctly, BART claims about 126 million rides (2015) and cost $906M (~$7 a ride, comparable to some uber pool fares)

Just to totally nitpick your last point, it's worth noting that the BART cost probably includes the entire infrastructure maintenance cost whereas Uber essentially has infrastructure subsidized (i.e., they don't need to pay for maintenance of the roads their cars drive on etc.) so a true comparison of efficiency would result in Uber "costing" more than that.

Uber, Lyft, and taxis don't just use subsidized infrastructure, it puts additional strain on that infrastructure compared to even single-occupancy vehicles. Uber cars circle around already heavily-congested roadways looking for fares (See: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/nyregion/uber-car-congest... this creates congestion.

And of course, anecdotally we've all driven behind an Uber car that suddenly pulls over to the side of a traffic lane to let its fare out.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#128

Post by plankers »

r00fus wrote: post #108
CydeWeys wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point the commenter is making is that Uber is just providing access to it. They aren't training all those drivers, buying and maintaining all those cars, building and maintaining all the roads, etc. BART does all those things for their rail system.

It gets worse. Uber relies on a roadway network built by tax money (BART can't). They also ignore all the externalities of pollution (Bart is minimal in comparison). The comparison between the two can't be made without adding in more factors.

It's rare that I see anyone bring up the pollution induced by Uber's (and Lyft's) business models. Now there's something I'd like to see studied more intensely.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#129

Post by nikanj »

jopsen wrote: post #116
chrisabrams wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in a suburb that should never happen. If you are in the NYC area for example, the GPS just really struggles between all the buildings. What's more frustrating is when you are on the other side of a busy street, you wave to the driver or even call them to let them know you're on the other side of the street, and they just sit there...

Why use GPS, just walk to an intersection so you know where you are, and set the needle there. If driver comes on the other side of street, maybe cross the street. A tiny bit of effort goes a long way...

At least in the pastUber didn't use the needle GPS coordinates, it picked the nearest street address from the pin. Fun times were had, when trying to get a pick-up from an outdoor event.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#130

Post by magicbuzz »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #24
chrisabrams wrote: post #7

Based on my rides recently I have seen the quality of drivers plummet on both Uber and Lyft. I'd be much more willing to wait (and maybe even pay) for a higher quality driver. Having a driver who cannot follow a GPS and takes you in a circle 3-4 times around the airport or does not speak English well enough to understand your request to stop on the right instead of the left like the GPS shows can be quite frustrating…

I have the reverse service expectations. I want absolutely cheap but non-shared point-to-point rides. Beyond some very minimal, basic safety and competency as a driver, I stop caring and just want it to be as cheap as possible. If I could indicate that I’ll happily be paired with a low rating driver if it is cheaper, I would. And it sounds like adding this functionality could satisfy both of our use cases too!

That mindset has made flying in the US the experience it is today.
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