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SuperShuttle is going out of business

latimes.com

71–80 of 135 posts

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#71

Super shuttle was too expensive for what it was. For less than twice the cost I could schedule a town car. For a single rider the shuttle was cheaper, but for me it was always to log. And I was shocked when I saw two and three people groups take the shuttle. The turning point for me was when the shuttle refused to take the faster hov lane.

> when the shuttle refused to take the faster hov lane

Any guesses as to why?

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#72

> In November, Lyft, Uber and taxis were relegated to a pickup lot next to Terminal 1; travelers can either walk there or wait for an airport shuttle to ferry them. I really hate cities that do this.

It's because LAX is too small to fit all the traffic. It's gridlocked in the entire airport at peak times. You can literally walk the entire terminal loop in 20 mins, it's like 4 lanes, and it gets the most traffic in America IIRC. It's the biggest airport clusterfuck in america.

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#73

> In November, Lyft, Uber and taxis were relegated to a pickup lot next to Terminal 1; travelers can either walk there or wait for an airport shuttle to ferry them. I really hate cities that do this.

LAX is a nightmare to drive to for dropping off passengers, though, so I'm actually fine with the policy here. It's the busiest origin and destination airport in the US so it has the most people entering and leaving landside.

If and only if there's a decent public transit alternative (train, metro, etc.) from the original terminal to the city then I really like cities that do this. That's rarely the case in the US and isn't at all at LAX, for now, but hopefully that will change within the decade.

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#74
post #66
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s good for you and for Lyft, if you’re going to protest an extra person because you barely all fit, you’re not a good candidate for shared rides.

I was more bothered by the incentives which require you to spend forever waiting for a driver to figure out how to read a map, locate people, while also being unsafely crammed into a sedan. All because the driver wants to make a few more dollars. Which he could have earned more via tip and a positive review. But mostly is the massive time variability as they could accept multiple rides on the way and reroute each tim…

In this case, the driver is supposed to mark the other passenger as a no show after 60 or 90 seconds. There's a timer that counts down on the driver app. Many drivers will wait longer, however.

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#75
post #67
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love Lyft but I took a shared lyft for the first time and the driver did three circles around a busy block trying to find a GPS dot (that never moved) that was obviously on the other side of the street, and after an extra 10min jammed an extra person in the car when we hardly fit, despite our protests. That was the last time I took a shared ride.

> jammed an extra person in the car when we hardly fit, despite our protests Are you talking about more people than seatbelts? Or just having three people across the back seat? If you choose pooled options ride-sharing companies go by the nominal capacity of the car, so four passengers plus the driver in a standard five-seater car.

He probably means that one or more of the two, soon three, people in the back were rather large.

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#76
post #31

Let's face it, Ridesharing ate their lunch. I was a religious SuperShuttle user until Lyft showed up - it usually cost me roughly the same amount to take a Lyft shared, I didn't have to wait on the right van to show up, and instead of winding through taking a half dozen other people home first, it often takes me straight home, or at most with a couple of stops. It's a hard world for traditional scheduled taxiing to b…

yeah but Lyft and Uber

* are often forbidden directly at airport gates

* you need an US sim phone card for phone apps. As a non US person I usually don't have that before traveling to the USA ;(

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#77
post #31

Let's face it, Ridesharing ate their lunch. I was a religious SuperShuttle user until Lyft showed up - it usually cost me roughly the same amount to take a Lyft shared, I didn't have to wait on the right van to show up, and instead of winding through taking a half dozen other people home first, it often takes me straight home, or at most with a couple of stops. It's a hard world for traditional scheduled taxiing to b…

yeah but Lyft and Uber * are often forbidden directly at airport gates * you need an US sim phone card for phone apps. As a non US person I usually don't have that before traveling to the USA ;(

Or WiFi, which most airports have.

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can schedule an Uber ahead of time.

That's not what scheduling an Uber actually does, though. "The Scheduled Rides feature allows you to select a 10 minute window for a driver to come pick you up. At the start of the window, the app will send out a ride request on your behalf." So if you "schedule a ride" at 7pm, it is exactly the same as just using the app manually at 6:50pm. There is absolutely nothing remotely close to a guarantee that anyone will y…

I think we did a Lyft once where we scheduled the night before and a specific driver accepted the ride that evening, then showed up at the godawful time in the morning that we specified. It was basically like arranging a taxi, but through the app. Did that feature go away or get changed? It was a year or two ago.

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#79
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one reason I take super shuttle to the airport is because I can schedule it ahead and I can at least be certain they will do whatever they can to honor the reservation. While for now uber/lyft are probably available often enough there is no guarantee that one is going to be available especially if you are flying very early or late.

You can schedule an Uber ahead of time.

I tried that, and 5 minutes before pickup, the driver canceled. The next available driver was 15 minutes later -- stressful.

Re: SuperShuttle is going out of business

#80

Super shuttle was too expensive for what it was. For less than twice the cost I could schedule a town car. For a single rider the shuttle was cheaper, but for me it was always to log. And I was shocked when I saw two and three people groups take the shuttle. The turning point for me was when the shuttle refused to take the faster hov lane.

> when the shuttle refused to take the faster hov lane Any guesses as to why?

I doubt this is why, but... on Hwy 101 near SFO, I see lots of rear-end accidents in the HOV lane. Speeds often go from 65 mph to 0 in seconds (crash), whereas the other lanes go from 30 to 0 (hard braking).

Granted, if you're alert, the HOV lane can offer some median space to swerve into.

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