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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

#261

Post by greenleafjacob »

saalweachter wrote: post #252
sithadmin wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Uber drivers get kicked off Uber if they do it too often. They might have the same incentives but the platform at least helps prevent it.

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

#262

Post by jkaplowitz »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #260
jkaplowitz wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Thanks for clarifying. Good correction. I wish this data were easier to compare in an apples to apples fashion. :(

(Big apples to big apples, maybe, given the city in question?)

I can no longer edit my grandparent comment to account for your correction, so this will have to do.

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

#263

Post by rdlecler1 »

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…

There are something like 8k restaurants in New York. Imagine if a restaurant lobby was able to limit new restaurants. This is basically what the taxi industry is doing.

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

#264

Post by weeksie »

CydeWeys wrote: post #200
weeksie wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a nice story but even if each yellow cab was operating 24/7 that's 3x, not 6x. // edit: right, 7 days so ~4x.

It explains the majority of the difference. It's simply not a remotely apple-to-apples comparison to compare yellow cab medallions, which are on the streets constantly, to rideshare license plates, which are not. The difference could even be more than 4X as another commenter points out, as many rideshare drivers are part-time.

I'm curious as to what story you think is being told? To me it's clear that the following things are true:

* Thera are 6x the number of uber drivers on the road. * A significant portion of those are new traffic * Substantially fewer rides are given per uber/ride for hire car

There's (much) more traffic and I have a hard time seeing what has changed in the city over the last ten years to make traffic so horrid other than Uber/hire cars. Maybe the decay of the subways? Still, ridership numbers aren't down and population hasn't grown much. If you've got any ideas I'd love to hear 'em.

Listen, I love not dealing with Yellow Cabs. They're a pack of assholes and Uber is far more convenient but you're bending over backward to justify a marginal magnitude difference in rides per car.

FWIW I think a hard cap on the number of hire cars is stupid but we are stuck with De Blasio and even Bloomberg couldn't get congestion pricing passed. Capping new ubers at 100k (the current total) is not really that onerous all considered. It's not like it's gonna make it 2010 again.

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

#265

Post by seanmcdirmid »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #263
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…

There are something like 8k restaurants in New York. Imagine if a restaurant lobby was able to limit new restaurants. This is basically what the taxi industry is doing.

It would be more like they were limiting the new buildings that could be zoned for restaurants. Since land is a finite resource, the number of restaurants that NYC can even contain is limited.

Here the limited resource is traffic bandwidth. Without congestion tolling, arbitrary regulations are the next best thing to helping to regulate usage.

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

#266

Post by megablast »

asah wrote: post #34
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…

In NYC a tax would be wildly regressive and favor wealthy wall st users over all others. EDIT: congestion tax = more expensive mobility (incl taxis and ride sharing) = less affordability It's similar to local sales taxes: the 1% aren't affected by the cost of basic items, but the 99% are.

Good. Anyone driving a car should be paying enough money to cover what they use, something they clearly aren't doing. Drivers get too much of a free ride.

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

#267

Post by megablast »

romwell wrote: post #22

Alternative title: "NYC Taxi mafia strikes back, gives Uber 12 months to come up with a large enough bribe". Really, the life of nearly everyone (who's not a taxi driver, perhaps) improved a bit since Uber entered the city. Even the fabled subway in its theoretical best has been dysfunctional in Brooklyn since the takedown of streetcars a hundred years ago (see how all the tracks are running towards Manhattan and ver…

> Really, the life of nearly everyone (who's not a taxi driver, perhaps) improved a bit since Uber entered the city.

More cars on the road hasn't helped me at all.

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

#268

Post by andrewprock »

user5994461 wrote: post #202
admax88q wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not ride sharing, its the fact that being a taxi driver in NYC is viewed as an investment rather than a job. That you have to purchase a medallion for insane sums of usually borrowed money. It's a broken system. Could you imagine if you had to put up $1.3 million to be a factory worker? Money that you're still on the hook for if the factory ends up closing due to lack of demand? Charging people for the…

If the medallion was bought 30 years ago as said, it was surely acquired for closer to $3 than to $1 million. He could sell it for a large profit, despite the downtrend in the recent years.

Thirty years ago they were about $250,000 in today's dollars. He would be lucky to recoup that in the current market.

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

#269

Post by etiennemarcel »

cryptonector wrote: post #129
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…

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.)

It was the same in Paris (CMP and Nord-Sud), until the subway was nationalized after the war. And yet there are still major investments...

You could say the same for the national railway network, it's a state company and it didn't prevent investments and improvements (high speed trains).

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

#270

Post by techsin101 »

This is plain bribery. I live in Brooklyn. Now I'm less late because of Uber. Before I've gotten fired because of situations where I can do nothing but just let fate run it course as I'm stuck in B train. Or wait for a bus that hasn't even left the station.

I know cab drivers are behind this.

Uber pool has saved me so much money.

When is next election for NYC mayor

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