I'd expected better from NYC. They are again trying to put back "Medallion" culture back in so that only powerful few can operate taxi business and essentially are licenced to exploit drivers from 3rd world. The city should have seen its taxi system as shameful arrangement where rich people created laws to get license for what was a slave market for all purpose and intent. People like Michael Cohen had exploited this system to make 10s of millions of dollars from the sweat of taxi drivers for practically zero effort. There are no reason to artificially limit the number of taxis. The demand and supply are far more efficient and desirable than politicians.
Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
251–260 of 303 posts
Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I believe all of these stories; I just don't understand why people expect or believe taxi drivers and Uber drivers are fundamentally different people with different incentives.
Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's cleaner than anything in Silicon Valley and less crowded than NYC. Timeliness and reliability are quite lacking though. It desperately needs rolling stock that wasn't due to be EoL'd a decade ago and it needs proper management which the thinly veiled jobs program known as the MBTA doesn't seem to be able to provide. edit: apparently SF is not representative of public transit in other cities in California.
Assuming you mean California, LA's Metro rail is no dirtier than Boston's MBTA rail. Sometimes it smells a little funky, but so do the streets -- Boston doesn't have quite the homeless population of Los Angeles.
LA’s metro rail is definitely dirtier than the MBTA, and while you’re right that LA faces more challenges with homeless people, there is still a meaningful presence of homelessness on the MBTA, combined with the fact that it’s a much larger rail network in terms of track and ridership and that it has to operate even during horrible winter conditions, I’d say there is a marked step up from LA metro rail to the MBTA in overall quality.
I’ve lived in both downtown LA and Cambridge, and it’s really difficult to conduct life in LA relying primarily on local rail options. Whereas in metro Boston, it’s much easier to live car-free than to own a car. The subway and commuter rail are just a superior way to get around 99% of the time. I mean, it’s not the same degree of car-obsolescence as New York, but it’s much closer to New York in that regard than it is to the situation in LA.
Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
Midtown, the village, Brooklyn, Queens... Where are you taking them from?
I've been taking Ubers from and to JFK, EWR, and LGA from Williamsburg and Chinatown for years never had a cancel on any of them. I thought the driver couldn't see the destination until they started the ride after you get in. Although I've encountered drivers starting a ride as soon as they see me on the street (which I contested and got money back for).
Seeing your luggage etc means they can make a pretty good guess about whether you're going to the airport.
Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 d…
I agree.
I think the idea is that being able to track the flow of monies is supposed to lead to changes that nudge us in the direction of political donation reform.
Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
The supply absolutely will go down because there will be some drivers over the next year who exit the system anyways, but no new drivers because the city says so.
The comment claims riders will get frustrated and stop heavy reliance on it, which is much stronger version of your claim.
Your comment did not say that that was what you were objecting to, nor did the text you quoted address how riders will or will not get frustrated et cetera.
Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless you only make 1-way trips, you still need to get from B back to A, so it's much more efficient to have a car that does these smaller individual legs of a trip for multiple people without needing parking space at every destination. Even better if that car can carry multiple people at the same time.
Parking spaces don’t get added at street level so they don’t make congestion worse. Really A to under ground parking at B back to underground parking at A is vastly better than Uber for the same trip. Overall NYC has token street level parking because it’s such a bad use of limited land.
It's still traffic to get into and out of those spaces. It's more cars on the road, whether parked or not, which means delays given limited throughput.
Having a shared Uber pool encourages the actual namesake of "ride-sharing" and gets multiple people using the same cars, hopefully at the same time, or at least waiting on the street where they take up much less space than a car. Even a small amount of passenger pooling and avoiding the inefficient parking movement can make a massive difference in road throughput
Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
What's the moral difference between political ads and donations to a political campaign which will presumably spend that money on ads (or other campaign related expenses)?
> What's the moral difference between political ads and donations to a political campaign which will presumably spend that money on ads (or other campaign related expenses)?
Public versus private view, public versus private benefit. Ads put me--the voter--in the equation. A campaign donation removes me from it.
Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
#259Earlier 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…
Did you know that the NYC subway system was originally built and operated by two private companies that competed with each other? Guess how that came to no longer be the case. (The city froze their rates until they were no longer able to improve services, then the city took them over.)
And for comparison, in the greater Tokyo area there are like 10 different competing train companies (although of the largest 3, one was privatized out of the government, one is privatized but government-owned, and one is government-run) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Tokyo_transit
Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown
#260Earlier 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…
> I view it as telling that Uber spent roughly four times what the taxi lobby spent
Uber spent four times as the taxi lobby spent on a single politician. I don't know what the taxi industry's total is. Given they shower tens of thousands of dollars on even state senators [1], I'd wager it's comparable to Uber's.
[1] https://nypost.com/2018/01/27/taxi-committee-head-got-thousa...