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Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

nytimes.com

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Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#211

Post by woolvalley »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #119
misiti3780 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i live in nyc and im glad this is happening. we have a traffic congestion problem here - i dont want more ubers, lyfts or yellow cabs on the street, i want less. i wish nyc would copy london and actually tax people for enter every bridge, tunnel etc in rush hours to stop it. the law of diminishing returns is in full effect here, regardless of what the engineers and SC want to tell themselves.

I want to see a high congestion tax placed in Seattle as well. Delivery, buses, and city residents exempt...possibly vehicles with multi passengers. We're starting to get NYC traffic. I bus every morning and it takes longer to get off the exit and into the city than it does for the entire rest of the ride. I look at who's driving into the city every day, and it's 95%+ single occupant vehicles, which is unacceptable.…

You want even congestion pricing, or at least congestion pricing on delivery and professional drivers too. This incentives efficient car services, because 1 car carrying 4 (or 20) people can split the cost amongst those 20 people without much of a sweat. A UPS car making 100 deliveries can split the cost for pennies per package.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#212

Post by romwell »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #115
komali2 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank God there's no electronic push scooters there, though. That would be the tipping point /s

If you have a substantive point to make, make it. As someone who doesn’t live in the USA it’s difficult for me to determine if your comment refers to some context I’m unfamiliar with. Are you implying electric push scooters are a solution for people who live 20 kilometres out of the city but work there? I’ve never been, but doesn’t it snow in NYC?

>it’s difficult for me to determine if your comment refers to some context I’m unfamiliar with.

The city has only lifted the ban on electric bikes a few months ago[1], but still bans electric scooters[2][3] because screw you, that's why. (They have reasons now, just like they've had reasons for banning e-bikes for over a decade after the technology provided a really viable mode of transportation at a reasonable price point).

That's the context you're missing.

[1]https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/11/why-does-new-...

[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/nyregion/new-york-today-a...

[3]https://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2018/07/19/nyc-s-do...

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#213

Post by zjaffee »

jrockway wrote: post #81
colinbartlett wrote: post #29

If the problem they are trying to solve is "too many vehicles" then we need a congestion tax. They should certainly not be limiting vehicles that are more likely to take multiple people with a Pool option. If the problem they are trying to solve is "drivers aren't making enough" then they should impose a minimum wage on drivers or force an actual employee relationship. If the problem they are trying to solve is a bai…

Yup. I'm no fan of Uber but at least the service is consistent. I remember on my first trip to NYC many years ago, I wanted to go to the airport during rush hour. No cab would stop and take me, because I looked like someone who wanted to go to the airport, which is out of their way. Apparently this is a known problem, so you're supposed to kind of hide your bag so they don't notice, then get in the cab, close the doo…

There is a doable solution, and that would be implementing a system where all major throughways have BRT with proper right of ways (and not the kind where other cars can just enter the bus lane). Yes this will lead to more congested streets for those who choose to drive their own cars, but to remove the current gridlock that exists due to the failing subway, this is the only real solution (where it could also easily be extended well beyond where the subways and existing buses go now.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#214

Post by jstarfish »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #148
pradn wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/nyregion/a-taxi-driver-to... : Immigrants from Romania, the couple had bought their New York City taxi medallion nearly three decades ago. Lately, it had been difficult to find fares. Her husband worked 12-hour shifts, but brought home less money. He was worried about the plunging value of their once-lucrative medallion and frustrated about Uber’s takeover of the industry. On a…

Yeah, a real tear-jerker. So, let's fix this. How do you propose to write a law that defines exactly when responsibility for suicide attaches? In this case, Mr. Ochisor's customers were so desperate for an alternative to his three-decade-old business that they turned to a startup company that works by (literally) dodging taxi regulators. Is that really Uber's fault? The regulators'? The customers? Just how far do we…

Immigrants have a hard enough time as it is getting access to this country. They can spend a decade or more going to the trouble of raising funds (not just burning free VC money), getting sponsorship/visas, emigrating, assimilating, and dropping serious capital to secure just an abstract right to operate a business, only to see their efforts trampled by a competitor that outscales and outperforms them by (your own admission!) cheating the same system.

What recourse did he have? To this day government response to Uber's incursions has been mostly toothless.

I'm no friend of the taxi lobby but the guy was just trying to do right by his family up until he killed himself. While I don't see how Uber could realistically be held responsible for this guy's suicide, their undercutting his business certainly contributed to it, and you're being needlessly callous.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#215

Post by Itaxpica »

It’s ironic that this was passed this morning, because this morning a power issue at Canal managed to knock out all service on the A/C/E line for hours... leaving me to have to get a Lyft to work. For the second time in a week. I’m all for greater regulation for ridesharing companies, but making it even harder to get around at a time the subway is in full crisis is a terrible idea.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#216

Post by naveen99 »

colinbartlett wrote: post #29

If the problem they are trying to solve is "too many vehicles" then we need a congestion tax. They should certainly not be limiting vehicles that are more likely to take multiple people with a Pool option. If the problem they are trying to solve is "drivers aren't making enough" then they should impose a minimum wage on drivers or force an actual employee relationship. If the problem they are trying to solve is a bai…

Uber already does surge pricing which has a similar effect as congestion tax.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#217

Post by zjaffee »

CydeWeys wrote: post #171
StanislavPetrov wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you live in New York? Have you been to Manhattan? There is very little parking anywhere. In the busiest places there is no street parking at all.

I live and work in Manhattan and there's on-street parking everywhere. Most streets are easily wide enough for two travel lanes plus a bike lane, but instead have one or two rows of parked cars. It's quite common for streets to have two parking lanes, one travel lane, and no bike lanes. Just pull up satellite imagery on Google Maps and it'll all be obvious.

Are you sure about this? Maybe this is true on avenues, but at least with the new york I know well (grew up in greenwich village), the streets are very narrow (one parking lane and one driving lane is already tricky), with avenues sometimes being wider.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#218

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

colinbartlett wrote: post #29

If the problem they are trying to solve is "too many vehicles" then we need a congestion tax. They should certainly not be limiting vehicles that are more likely to take multiple people with a Pool option. If the problem they are trying to solve is "drivers aren't making enough" then they should impose a minimum wage on drivers or force an actual employee relationship. If the problem they are trying to solve is a bai…

I read it differently. This legislation is good for Uber, because it lays the groundwork for severe regulatory capture where Uber can use the cap to prevent competitors from having any chance to gain critical customer bases.

It’s an anti-competition decision disguised as if city hall is doing something for the people.

Now Uber just has to lobby to have its cap raised or be allocated a greater portion, and steadily push others out.

This way Uber can get the transit monopoly it wants but without having to do the hard work of making the product profitable at a price point that drivers and riders actually value, which it currently papers over with VC funding and distraction stories about branching into other lines of business that are clearly not significant.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#219

Post by jjeaff »

timr wrote: post #206
kaishiro wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not seem to jive with the parent comment to whom I was originally replying though: "Ubers don't want to go to the airport for the same reason that cabs don't."

Seems consistent to me: Ubers don't want to places where they can't easily pick up a return trip; same as cabs. That's always been my assumption, anyway.

This is a result of poor logistics on the part of Uber and Lyft. There are a large number of Ubers and lyfts that will drop off and have to leave the airport without a passenger, meanwhile, you can call you car and be told it's a 10min wait as someone who isn't even on premises accepts the fare.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#220

Post by zjaffee »

CydeWeys wrote: post #154
colinbartlett wrote: post #29

If the problem they are trying to solve is "too many vehicles" then we need a congestion tax. They should certainly not be limiting vehicles that are more likely to take multiple people with a Pool option. If the problem they are trying to solve is "drivers aren't making enough" then they should impose a minimum wage on drivers or force an actual employee relationship. If the problem they are trying to solve is a bai…

I would love a congestion tax. I take a bike to work, but there's no good cross-town protected bike lanes, so I hit so a lot of damn vehicle traffic that severely slows down my commute. I frequently have to go slow to wend my way through narrow gaps of parked cars and cars stuck in traffic, and sometimes get stuck completely with double parking or construction. Make more protected bike lanes so that vehicle congestio…

True protected bike lanes with signaling priority that you see in cities like Seattle would be near impossible to implement in manhattan given that on all the wider crosstown streets downtown, there are major bus routes running along them that need a curb to pick people up at (although I'd also be happy just banning non commercial vehicles from lower manhattan in general where we implemented park and rides at all the closest subway/path stops).
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