Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017 • Hacker News Board

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#51

Post by brianjoseff » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:30 PM UTC

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

I also derive tremendous personal value from getting the opportunity to meet the people driving the cars.

Hearing different perspectives, sharing interesting stories, and generally engaging in real human interaction are something I don't get enough of in my regular life, and Lyft has materially changed that. Of course unfortunate that I don't get enough of that outside of a transactional transportation arrangement, but it's real for me.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#52

Post by toomuchtodo » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:31 PM UTC

brianjoseff wrote: post #51

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

I also derive tremendous personal value from getting the opportunity to meet the people driving the cars. Hearing different perspectives, sharing interesting stories, and generally engaging in real human interaction are something I don't get enough of in my regular life, and Lyft has materially changed that. Of course unfortunate that I don't get enough of that outside of a transactional transportation arrangement, b…

I really appreciate you mentioning this. I occasionally drive for Lyft just to meet new people.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#53

Post by theseatoms » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:31 PM UTC

y2bd wrote: post #28

brndnmtthws wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Move to a different city.

What are some cities with decent enough public transportation and urban planning for pedestrians that also don’t suffer from lack of housing/exhorbitant housing prices? The top cities I can think of that satisfy the former unfortunately also have the latter.

Chicago

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#54

Post by foota » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:33 PM UTC

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

I would imagine most people ditching their cars rely on some combination of transit options.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#55

Post by kayoone » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:33 PM UTC

Meanwhile in Berlin, i just paid 14 EUR on uberCab to get to work last week because i had an important meeting and was late. For a 5km trip that took 10 minutes. Since uber is not allowed here and the normal stuff is so expensive, this whole market does not even exist here.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#56

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:33 PM UTC

y2bd wrote: post #28

brndnmtthws wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Move to a different city.

What are some cities with decent enough public transportation and urban planning for pedestrians that also don’t suffer from lack of housing/exhorbitant housing prices? The top cities I can think of that satisfy the former unfortunately also have the latter.

[deleted]

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#57

Post by cbcoutinho » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:33 PM UTC

vlozko wrote: post #39

brndnmtthws wrote: post #20

Automobile ownership is dumb, but ridesharing isn't the answer either. Cities need to invest in public infrastructure, especially fast efficient public transit. People should also rediscover the joy of human power (walk, bike, run).

That's the bubble mentality of someone who lives in the city and/or doesn't have a family. How about you try hauling a baby in a stroller, diaper bag, and two other kids to a metro train (if you're so lucky to have one close) and then onto a bus. Ride sharing doesn't solve those problems, either, especially since you'd be in need of carseats. So no, automobile ownership is not dumb. There's plenty of use cases where…

I'll accept that there are reasons for having a car related to child rearing, especially for the first, say, 5-10 years of a child's life. After that, ditch the car and get back to using public transportation or human-powered locomotion.

When I was growing up my family had a car, but around middle school it was possible to bike to any school/sports/extracurricular activity within 20 minutes. My parents kept the car for a number of reasons, but getting to work was numero uno. If getting to work was simpler with public transportation then we would have been able to get rid of the car much more easily.

Now living in a big city - Amsterdam - makes living without a car magnitudes easier.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#58

Post by jonknee » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:34 PM UTC

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

Not everyone has beater cars that they work on themselves and park for free. Where I live it's $300 or more a month to park which would be more than your whole annual cost even if you get free parking at either home or work.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#59

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:34 PM UTC

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

[deleted]

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#60

Post by DougN7 » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:34 PM UTC

brndnmtthws wrote: post #25

bpicolo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure people in the US would love to walk to work, but the layout of US cities doesn't lend itself to that. People tend to live pretty dang far from where they work in the US.

Move to a different city.

I don't mean to be rude, but you need to get out of your bubble and see how the rest of the world lives. I hope you're living your dream, but everyone has different dreams, constraints, etc and they're not all inferior because they are different from yours.