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Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

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Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#221

Post by mdpopescu »

xacaxulu wrote: post #213

No matter what Uber does, they always please me with stuff like this. It makes the anarch-libertarian blood run warm to see government cronies routinely bested and consumers offered superior services in a market that was ripe for innovation. Now we need this type of disruption in health care and education.

It started in education with Khan Academy and the like, but there's still a lot of work to be done. As for health care... it is one of my fondest wishes for a large company like Google to come up with a medical expert system that can solve even half of the "take two pills and come back in two days" consultation that currently cost me $50.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#222

Post by humanrebar »

soyiuz wrote: post #215
jrockway wrote: post #48

I don't really like Uber's business practices but they do fill an essential niche in New York City. A couple years ago, the city allowed independent car services to paint their cars green and take street hails. They previously did this, of course, but it wasn't legal. And of course, not every "black car" became a green cab, so this still happens. It's the standard way to get around the outer boroughs of New York. I w…

Just to clarify: green cabs are allowed to pick up street hails in Manhattan, North of West 110th street and north of East 96th street. http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/industry/shl.shtml The city now also promotes its own hailing app called Way2Ride, which has Uber-like features (pay by mobile and request hail to location). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.verifone.w...

Uber and other companies are itching to fill the role of taxi hailing app. Why does the city need to promote its own?

This sort of arbitrary anti-competitiveness is exactly why Uber has a niche to fill in the first place.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#223

Post by lallysingh »

pbreit wrote: post #112
dylanjermiah wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is rare to see, of not impossible, a real monopoly in a free market. Uber has to compete to win customers, if they artificially raise their prices to where people will not pay, people will choose a different form of transportation.

I think Ubers monopoly will be at least as strong as Ebay's in online auctions. There's a humongous liquidity advantage.

You can start in a niche and grow out. Like Brooklyn.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#224

Post by Lawtonfogle »

sillygeese wrote: post #179
jrockway wrote: post #48

I don't really like Uber's business practices but they do fill an essential niche in New York City. A couple years ago, the city allowed independent car services to paint their cars green and take street hails. They previously did this, of course, but it wasn't legal. And of course, not every "black car" became a green cab, so this still happens. It's the standard way to get around the outer boroughs of New York. I w…

> A couple years ago, the city allowed independent car services to paint their cars green and take street hails. Does anyone else see the absurdity in that? Compare to: "In 2014, the city allowed people to wear green socks" If you want to transport people for a fee, what rational, moral justification is there for anyone to intervene in that? -To decide what colour your car should be, or where you can pick up customer…

And you can. There is absolutely no law stopping your from picking up people in a car and taking them places. On land you own.

When it is communal land, communal rules are made (sadly they far too often benefit a well connected minority, but the concept itself isn't bad).

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#225

Post by juliangregorian »

humanrebar wrote: post #222
soyiuz wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to clarify: green cabs are allowed to pick up street hails in Manhattan, North of West 110th street and north of East 96th street. http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/industry/shl.shtml The city now also promotes its own hailing app called Way2Ride, which has Uber-like features (pay by mobile and request hail to location). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.verifone.w...

Uber and other companies are itching to fill the role of taxi hailing app. Why does the city need to promote its own? This sort of arbitrary anti-competitiveness is exactly why Uber has a niche to fill in the first place.

Huh? Isn't having a competing taxi hailing app the definition of competitiveness?

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#226

Post by juliangregorian »

Hominem wrote: post #132
clarkm wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the light was tied to the meter in order to prevent stuff like that?

They don't have to turn the meter on, especially after their shift when they are driving back to the lot. One more thing, if you pick up a yellow cab, or a "car service", when they are off the clock, you don't have to tip.

Technically, you don't have to tip ever. It's just a dick move not to.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#227

Post by [deleted] »

dbcooper wrote: post #62

Caught a taxi tonight in Paris. 5 euro but jacked up to a minimum of 7, driver claimed he couldn't give me change. He spent 5 minutes pretending to have no change, then gave me 2 euros in coins plus a 10 in exchange for a 20. Great. Taxi services have practically begged for Uber etc to destroy them.

[deleted]

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#228

Post by moistgorilla »

[deleted] wrote: post #227
dbcooper wrote: post #62

Caught a taxi tonight in Paris. 5 euro but jacked up to a minimum of 7, driver claimed he couldn't give me change. He spent 5 minutes pretending to have no change, then gave me 2 euros in coins plus a 10 in exchange for a 20. Great. Taxi services have practically begged for Uber etc to destroy them.

[deleted]

Are you seriously making fun of him because he didn't want to get scammed?

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#229

Post by humanrebar »

juliangregorian wrote: post #225
humanrebar wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber and other companies are itching to fill the role of taxi hailing app. Why does the city need to promote its own? This sort of arbitrary anti-competitiveness is exactly why Uber has a niche to fill in the first place.

Huh? Isn't having a competing taxi hailing app the definition of competitiveness?

It's a portal provided by the government (through a contract). It's may be competitive for taxis (that's an empirical question, I think), but it's not competitive in terms of algorithms, ratings systems, predictive taxi distribution, etc.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#230

Post by akgerber »

mhaymo wrote: post #193
sillygeese wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A couple years ago, the city allowed independent car services to paint their cars green and take street hails. Does anyone else see the absurdity in that? Compare to: "In 2014, the city allowed people to wear green socks" If you want to transport people for a fee, what rational, moral justification is there for anyone to intervene in that? -To decide what colour your car should be, or where you can pick up customer…

The road is a limited common resource, and it's difficult to directly charge drivers per their usage of it, so the local government uses other forms of regulation.

It's actually not particularly difficult to charge drivers directly for their usage of roads in the Manhattan CBDs: http://iheartmoveny.org/

It just would require a heavy political and bureaucratic lift.

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