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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

#231

Post by vonmoltke »

CydeWeys wrote: post #138
StanislavPetrov wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with all of this except the part about enforcing the traffic laws against cars parked in the bike lanes. The NYPD is most certainly lazy and incompetent (as well as corrupt), but the issue is the bike lanes themselves. Most of the city, especially the most congested parts, simple have no room for a bike lane. The vast majority of vehicles blocking the bike lanes are making pickups or deliveries. There is simply…

Here's the thing though. Those bike lanes are clearly being used by lots of people, as are the travel lanes by lots of drivers. What isn't being utilized well is all of that free parking along the street -- most of those vehicles only move twice a week when they have to because of street sweeping. So the simple solution is to eliminate all of the free parking and replace it with paid parking and loading zones. And ra…

> So the simple solution is to eliminate all of the free parking and replace it with paid parking and loading zones.

There's free parking in Midtown?

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

#232

Post by jkaplowitz »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #144
jkaplowitz wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: what are the equivalent numbers for Uber's side of the battle? Looking at one side of the question without the other doesn't allow a balanced assessment of the situation.

> what are the equivalent numbers for Uber's side of the battle? The bulk of Uber's ~$2 million/year of political spending in New York goes towards ad campaigns [1]. The taxi lobby bought the mayor and City Council; Uber created a grassroots backlash. This was the balance. Then Uber burned off its teflon coating. Since Lyft never bothered with politics and Juno/Gett is so young, the balance broke and we got this mess…

Thanks for providing the numbers and your take on the situation.

I think we come away with quite different reactions to the same facts: I view it as telling that Uber spent roughly four times what the taxi lobby spent, but most of the conversational focus regarding spending targets the taxi lobby - one of many widespread biases in which some bits of the for-hire transportation debate get more frequently talked about and others usually overlooked.

The (legitimately real) rank and file support and skewed discussion focus which Uber's ad/lobbying money has bought them isn't my idea of grassroots backlash, even if it unwittingly enlists the grassroots in their PR campaign.

No doubt the taxi lobby is pushing their interests just like Uber pushes theirs. Neither set of industry lobbyists is truly looking out for the citizens.

But when the conversation they've shaped pairs "bought the mayor and City Council" for the less-spending party with "created a grassroots backlash" for the more-spending party, I can only marvel impressed and saddened at Uber PR's effectiveness.

In most cities, the local taxi lobby plus the citizens who oppose Uber/Lyft/Juno/Gett for normal public policy reasons are even more outclassed against a major VC-funded global would-be monopolist like Uber than NYC managed. I'm impressed at de Blasio and City Council for holding firm.

(As you can tell, I'm no fan of these companies for several reasons, but explaining those reasons substantively would be a huge tangent.)

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

#233

Post by sithadmin »

ccccccccccccc wrote: post #230
CydeWeys wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meanwhile, with Uber you just press a button and they take you to the airport, bags and all. Not necessarily. Ubers don't want to go to the airport for the same reason that cabs don't. I've had ride shares cancel on me once the driver's gotten close enough to see that the destination is an airport. Granted it doesn't happen as often as with cabs whose meter is conveniently not working once you mention the airport,…

I tried to go from SFO to South Bay a while back around midnight and eventually took a cab after being cancelled by multiple Uber drivers. Some even called me, asked where I was going, then angrily said they don't go to South Bay and cancelled.

Heh, I've always had the opposite experience. They either want to go to the city or somewhere far South. Something close like Millbrae, South City or Burlingame? They cancel the ride.

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

#234

Post by girvo »

CydeWeys wrote: post #134
jrockway wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Meanwhile, with Uber you just press a button and they take you to the airport, bags and all. Not necessarily. Ubers don't want to go to the airport for the same reason that cabs don't. I've had ride shares cancel on me once the driver's gotten close enough to see that the destination is an airport. Granted it doesn't happen as often as with cabs whose meter is conveniently not working once you mention the airport,…

If the drivers do that, report them through the app. They’ll stop doing it pretty quickly—if it’s done often enough, they’re “fired”

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

#235

Post by nkurz »

TuringNYC wrote: post #190
vkou wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is also a larger problem Uber solves (one of many) -- once you lose density (i.e., outside airport/centercity) it is hard to hail a cab, so you have to dial a cab. You dail, they invariably say "wait outside be there in 5 min" -- sometimes they show up in 5min, sometimes 10min, sometimes 30min, sometimes never. Variable pricing and GPS tracking solves this. Variable pricing solves this for people with the abi…

I agree with almost everything you say. However, I do want to note that you can pay with dollars or pay with time. The old way was that you paid with time/uncertainty. You'd wait, and wait, and wait. Now you can get what you want right away, you just need to auction/bid on it to get it immediately. Totally agreed this solves the problem for those who can bear higher prices, so it disfavors the poor. That said, people…

Same thing for rainy weather -- cabs would disappear. That was legitimate because the cost of driving is indeed higher in rain (fewer rides per hour) and thus deserves more compensation.

I think you have this backwards. The traditional explanation is that it's harder to get a cab when it rains because demand goes up, not down, because no one wants to walk in the rain. The more complex modern explanation[1] is that the higher demand but slower traffic offset, so cab drivers make the same amount in the rain as at other times. In either case, I don't think the cabs actually "disappear", rather they are all occupied. Or maybe this is what you meant?

[1] http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/why-you-cant-ge...

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

#236

Post by lev99 »

moorhosj wrote: post #38
djsumdog wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is sad. NYC is one of the few (like 2, maybe 3) America cities with an actual usable rail system and it's rotted into disrepair. I'm all for limiting rid share vehicles and better wages for drivers, but they need to dump a shit ton of time and money into the rail system, both the subway and intercity. Fix Penn Station, and get the tracks up to spec! That should be the #1 priority for city transport infrastructur…

==NYC is one of the few (like 2, maybe 3) America cities with an actual usable rail system== Interested to hear what the other cities are. Chicago? San Fran?

DC proper.

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

#237

Post by dilap »

sebleon wrote: post #228

My suspicion is that Uber could out-bribe the taxi lobby by 10x, without moving the needle on profitability. This cap signifies that Uber either a) doesn't bribe politicians, or b) bribed the wrong politicians.

Losing their edge w/o Travis.

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

#238

Post by TaylorAlexander »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #99
TuringNYC wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why the downvotes. One has to realize that sometimes "solutions" are an answer not to a problem but to address some constituency.

Further than that, we can’t have democracy unless all contributions to politicians/ candidates are reported and published in real time. Without that we can’t know if a person deserves to hold a position, or even if they are eligible.

Knowing about the donations helps, but some have suggested we forego the idea of donations in the first place. It’s hard to see how it could be called a democracy when some people can donate millions to prop up a candidate. We can all watch and say “yep, they got a big donation”, but they’re still going to out find a candidate who represents the people against the moneyed interests. Perhaps not in all cases but the donations really slew the system.

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

#239

Post by euyyn »

jkaplowitz wrote: post #232
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what are the equivalent numbers for Uber's side of the battle? The bulk of Uber's ~$2 million/year of political spending in New York goes towards ad campaigns [1]. The taxi lobby bought the mayor and City Council; Uber created a grassroots backlash. This was the balance. Then Uber burned off its teflon coating. Since Lyft never bothered with politics and Juno/Gett is so young, the balance broke and we got this mess…

Thanks for providing the numbers and your take on the situation. I think we come away with quite different reactions to the same facts: I view it as telling that Uber spent roughly four times what the taxi lobby spent, but most of the conversational focus regarding spending targets the taxi lobby - one of many widespread biases in which some bits of the for-hire transportation debate get more frequently talked about…

Who cares how much money they spend on public ads? On the other hand, it's easy to understand why people care about how much money is donated to the campaigns of the politicians that will make these decisions.

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

#240

Post by dyarosla »

jkaplowitz wrote: post #232
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what are the equivalent numbers for Uber's side of the battle? The bulk of Uber's ~$2 million/year of political spending in New York goes towards ad campaigns [1]. The taxi lobby bought the mayor and City Council; Uber created a grassroots backlash. This was the balance. Then Uber burned off its teflon coating. Since Lyft never bothered with politics and Juno/Gett is so young, the balance broke and we got this mess…

Thanks for providing the numbers and your take on the situation. I think we come away with quite different reactions to the same facts: I view it as telling that Uber spent roughly four times what the taxi lobby spent, but most of the conversational focus regarding spending targets the taxi lobby - one of many widespread biases in which some bits of the for-hire transportation debate get more frequently talked about…

You are definitely coming off as biased which to me is strange. Maybe Uber isn’t a saint of a company, but thinking that bribery is somehow morally equivalent to advertising (whatever the multiple) is very odd.
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