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Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

lyft.com

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Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#751

Post by edmundsauto »

umvi wrote: post #678
AgloeDreams wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lyft and Uber are favored due to convenience and price. Nothing stops a regulated Uber that pays fair wages from convenience...but the price paid will have to become higher to support people. This is like McDonald's paying workers $3 an hour, charging $2 for a value menu meal, and then people saying 'wow, McDonald's has made Burger King obsolete!'. Of course customers will prefer the cheaper service that screws worke…

Before Uber/Lyft existed, the taxi experience sucked. Uber/Lyft provided: - A way to pre-pay - A way to communicate current location and destination clearly to driver - All from an intuitive app on your phone I'm guessing you never went to NYC, tried in vain to find a taxi when you needed one, then got a taxi driver who barely spoke English, tried to communicate where to go, ended up paying way more than you intended…

This is true, but a better comparison would be to the current taxi market. As much I dislike the realities of the medallions, it's important to acknowledge that taxis have generally upped their game too.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#752

Post by riffic »

umvi wrote: post #720
vertbhrtn wrote: post #463

It's fascinating how the subsistence wage is simultaneously too low for workers and too high corporations.

Imagine creating an app called "Clean Streets" - basically people can put bounties on streets, other people can collect the bounty by picking up the litter. Sounds like a great little idea right? The app takes a 1% fee for server upkeep. Win/win, bored teenagers make some extra money and your neighborhood gets cleaned up... right? Wrong. Turns out, people aren't willing to pay that much for people to clean up their s…

I've been kicking around the idea of a New Urbanist business model generator, which would spit out ideas from keyword lists like "gamification blockchain micropayments 311 litter reporting cleanup" et cetera. I'm sure there are a whole bunch of businesses out there that can be created based on applying civic principles to disruptive capitalist exploitation models

edit: please don't ever ask me the related dystopian business model generator.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#754

Post by matmann2001 »

BadassFractal wrote: post #466
agentdrtran wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swear people forget how Uber got popular in the first place.

By providing a service that was more convenient, safer and affordable than the alternatives protected by regulatory rent-seeking.

Playing devil's advocate here, but how do you think they managed to make a more affordable solution? If you think it's entirely due to their technology, I'm afraid you'd be mistaken.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#755

Post by jedberg »

codefreakxff wrote: post #747
seankimdesign wrote: post #699

Kudos on that moral victory California. You robbed my mobility-impaired younger sister of her legs without providing any alternative. Fuck your sorry excuse of public transit filled with gawkers and requiring her to wonder whether there will be connected sidewalks for her to solve her last-two-mile trip on her chair. "Oh, but Uber and Lyft were brought down by their own greed" Well, where is the non-greedy alternativ…

It's called a Taxi. They will drive to your location, pick you up, and take you anywhere you want to go.

You've clearly never tried to use a taxi in California.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#756

Post by extra88 »

seankimdesign wrote: post #699

Kudos on that moral victory California. You robbed my mobility-impaired younger sister of her legs without providing any alternative. Fuck your sorry excuse of public transit filled with gawkers and requiring her to wonder whether there will be connected sidewalks for her to solve her last-two-mile trip on her chair. "Oh, but Uber and Lyft were brought down by their own greed" Well, where is the non-greedy alternativ…

> without providing any alternative

Taxis still exist.

Given the history of Uber and Lyft drivers denying access to riders with wheelchairs, decrying the loss of their services seems weird.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#757

Post by seankimdesign »

fdshgaerfhe wrote: post #728
seankimdesign wrote: post #699

Kudos on that moral victory California. You robbed my mobility-impaired younger sister of her legs without providing any alternative. Fuck your sorry excuse of public transit filled with gawkers and requiring her to wonder whether there will be connected sidewalks for her to solve her last-two-mile trip on her chair. "Oh, but Uber and Lyft were brought down by their own greed" Well, where is the non-greedy alternativ…

Where in California does your sister live that doesn't offer Paratransit services?

I think she still uses it when there's no alternative. I don't know much about it myself, but from what she tells me it's a fine service for when she needs to go to the library on a lazy day, but meeting a friend or having to make a schedule on a certain time? It's practically a coin flip.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#758

Post by microtherion »

boreas wrote: post #536
AgloeDreams wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Ridesharing' (Which is a hilarious term for the simple fact that the ride is not being shared, the driver is not intending to go to your favorite bar. ) isn't a 21st century situation or solution. It's not a profitable or a good force in an economy, it does not pay a reasonable wage for anyone to live on, it is not environmentally friendly unless done in large quantities of people,(which is called a bus). Ridesharin…

Ridesharing created a more or less competitive market for this slice of the transportation sector. Competitive markets are the best way to allocate resources. If you don't agree with that, it will be hard to have a productive discussion. But if you do agree with that, shouldn't we resolve inequalities by directly supporting the least fortunate (with cash) rather than force parties into arbitrary economic relationship…

It's not really a "competitive market" if the new entrants are massively subsidized by investors and therefore never had to compete on equal economic footing.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#759

Post by throwaway_kufu »

carlosdp wrote: post #476
mcguire wrote: post #437

" As employees they would have to work set schedules and shifts, would not be able to work for multiple app-based companies and would have reduced earning potential — and many jobs would actually be eliminated. " ( https://prop22facts.com/lyft/ ) Is that something mandated by California? As far as I know, everywhere else I've been, work-schedules and anti-moonlighting are restrictions placed by the employer, not the…

I hear this a lot, that Lyft/Uber could allow the same flexibility if they wanted to. It's not that the law dictates this shift, it's that the economics do. Requiring full employment means you can hire less drivers. If you have less drivers, you need more control over when they drive in order to make sure when customers are looking for a ride, they can find one, hence shifts.

> It's not that the law dictates this shift, it's that the economics do.

You can check their S-1 filing for the “economics” of it...Uber before going public was losing money and acknowledged the legal risk they had been misclassifying drivers as contractors and should drivers be reclassified as employees it’s an existential threat to Uber.

That’s the economics of it...Uber knew they were in the wrong, they knew the day of reckoning was coming and investors took the damn thing public for maximum profits and to cash out and leave others holding the bag.

But the reality is the whole employee/independent contractor issue is just a scapegoat for investors to point their finger at regulations and say that’s why the business failed, but the truth is even without the illegal classification of drivers Uber would never have turned a profit.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#760

Post by jMyles »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #740
fdshgaerfhe wrote: post #728

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where in California does your sister live that doesn't offer Paratransit services?

Or taxis.

I find it a little vulgar to suggest the regulatory capture variant of a service to a disabled person who was benefiting from the more libre configuration.
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