How Uber's Like A Bridge
It's one of the things I love about Uber -- never knowing who you'll get as a driver or where they'll be from.
At FEE, James Walpole writes about how ridesharing offers more than transportation: as he puts it, "rides with people whose cultural backgrounds differ widely from mine."
Through the delightful randomness of their driver-rider algorithms, ride-sharing services Lyft and Uber have put this farm-bred white boy together with a Nigerian immigrant, a Colombian salsa music fan, a veteran from the Pacific coast, and a member of one the native tribes of Alaska, not to mention many more interesting people.A Lyft or Uber ride forces us to spend a stretch of time in the company of someone who may be very different than us. In those awkward moments of introduction to strangers, our instinct is to search for common ground. In those moments, brought to us (and our cities) by Lyft and Uber, we share our own vulnerabilities about salsa dancing, our shared entrepreneurial dreams, and our love of the city we all call home.
I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but someone ought to notice the public service Lyft and Uber are doing for the world. Through commercial interactions, they are helping to break down walls between cultures and replace them with bonds of neighborliness.
How is that different from a regular taxi
NicoleK at July 5, 2018 12:57 AM
First there was Uber, then Uber Eats, and now ... UberRapes!
Growing concern as police figures suggest company's drivers are linked to one sex attack in London per week
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4741030/Figures-Uber-drivers-linked-one-sex-attack-week.html
Snoopy at July 5, 2018 3:45 AM
Israeli diplomat in US booted from Uber for speaking Hebrew
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-diplomat-in-us-booted-from-uber-for-speaking-hebrew/
Snoopy at July 5, 2018 3:49 AM
Yeah. Like NicoleK I fail to see the difference between this and a taxi. And taxis have been like this since, oh, I don't know, as long as there've been taxis.
Ben at July 5, 2018 4:43 AM
Are we surprised that Uber is becoming like a taxi service? Do we think taxi services started as dirty, beat-up cars with rude drivers? Or did they, too, start as a convenient service offering rides in clean cars with polite, liveried drivers? Plus ça change.
Has James Walpole ever actually been in a taxi? I've had Armenian drivers, Nigerian drivers, Korean drivers, drivers listening to rap, drivers listening to opera, I've discussed basketball with some drivers, discussed politics with others, in other words, taxi drivers offer the entire gamut of cultural backgrounds the US has to offer.
I had one taxi driver in San Francisco who decided the road rules did not apply to him. He happily drove the wrong way on one-way streets, made left turns from the far-right lane, and broke every traffic law on the books, all while screaming loudly in an unidentified foreign language. I had asked him to get me to my destination quickly as possible and, admittedly, he obliged. I had thought only Boston cabbies were that crazy.
Conan the Grammarian at July 5, 2018 6:46 AM
"How is that different from a regular taxi"
I think there's a difference in that a lot of the people who drive for Uber or Lyft are not full-time drivers. I get the impression that there's a good number who have other jobs and drive a few hours a week as a side gig, or just for kicks. There's some fairly easy money to be made in the peak hours; e.g., a typical Saturday night in most cities.
If you're a car person, there's also the variety of cars. You never know what kind of vehicle you're going to get -- very different from a taxi.
Cousin Dave at July 5, 2018 7:00 AM
Many early (pre-Medallion-era) taxi drivers owned their taxis. And the variety of cars was abundant. F. Scott Fitzgerald had one of his characters in The Great Gatsby "let four taxicabs drive away before she selected a new one, lavender-colored with gray upholstery."
More than a few of the early taxi drivers hacked "for kicks." It was a license to drive fast down city streets and to compete with other drivers. The apocryphal Henry Ford quote comes to mind, "Auto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built."
As I understand it, many ride-share drivers are finding that "easy money" in the peak hours more difficult to find as peak-hour-only drivers are creating a glut of ride-sharing options in peak hours.
Taxi driving was once romanticized in song and in several Broadway shows. August Wilson's Jitney finally made it to Broadway in 2017. I can't wait for Uber! The Musical to hit the Great White Way.
So, will Uber and Lyft go the way of taxis? Will established drivers petition the government to regulate the industry to keep out the newcomers? Will owners with more than one car begin leasing their cars to aspiring drivers? Will we one day be complaining about dirty ride-sharing cars and rude drivers and turning to something else for a clean ride and a polite driver?
Plus ça change.
Conan the Grammarian at July 5, 2018 7:33 AM
"Are we surprised that Uber is becoming like a taxi service?"
No. We are surprised that people think Uber is something brand new that has never been seen before.
Ben at July 5, 2018 7:56 AM
Yonder, yonder.
Crid at July 5, 2018 9:07 AM
Interesting.
Conan the Grammarian at July 5, 2018 12:41 PM
Can't support this from my own experience--I've used Uber exactly once--but it seems to me that an Uber or Lyft driver is more likely than a taxi driver to be a middle-class white suburbanite.
Rex Little at July 5, 2018 2:36 PM
Re Snoopy's link
Seems to me police figures shouldnt "suggest" anything
If you are raped by your Uber driver its not like you dont know who they were or how to identify them.
And the police should be able to arrest them quite easily
lujlp at July 5, 2018 3:59 PM
My experience sounds like Rex's -- also fairly limited. It was the white sub-urbanite trying to make a few extra bucks that were driving for uber/lyft.
The Former Banker at July 5, 2018 8:17 PM
Uber is not BECOMING LIKE a taxi service, Uber IS a taxi service. Just an unregulated one. For now.
NicoleK at July 6, 2018 2:49 AM
Conan, your writeup reminds me of Hildy, the female taxi driver character from On The Town. Saw the Broadway revival a few years ago. And yeah, taxi services didn't used to be trashy and expensive. (They may have been one or the other at various times, but now they're both.)
Cousin Dave at July 6, 2018 6:55 AM
We live part-time in NYC. Before "ride sharing," if there was rain or snow, even a light mist, taxis would all disappear. They didn't want short-haul rides. I guess they felt it wasn't worth their time. Now they are out there, even if they are complaining the whole time.
Conan has it right. Taxis used to be a way for poor people to work their way up in society, until government "helped" by limiting the number of medallions available. That priced the medallions out of reach of all but the wealthy, so drivers are no longer owner/operators, just stay-poor dead-end employees.
wambut at July 6, 2018 7:09 AM
Uber is the best thing since sliced bread. We live about 12 miles outside of downtown Philadelphia, technically still in the city but more like a suburb. Taxis don't want to come here, it was a lengthy and uncertain process trying to get a cab. Extremely expensive. Taxis downtown are scarce or nonexistant in times of high demand. Finally, I am surprised that every discussion of the merits of Uber doesn't mention the safety factor. Our lovely 20-something daughter waiting for a bus by herself at night in town?? Horrible idea. Uber has given her and her brother freedom and safety to navigate the city.
RigelDog at July 6, 2018 9:25 AM
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