As I said originally, I hate defending them not because they provide a needed service, but because of what I read about how they treat their drivers.
I get that they serve a purpose, filling a gap left by public transportation. I just hope they aren’t the pinnacle of innovation in that field, and look forward to the day they either evolve or are made obsolete.
I’m thinking they will “evolve” to driverless cars. If so, on the upside they’ll stop mistreating their drivers. I suppose.
Yeah, well driving yourself is obliviously to be avoided, but I can get from Roscoe Village to O’Hare for about $20 on uber if there is light traffic in 20 minutes. Conversely in heavy traffic I do the opposite. Trip from/to O’Hare during rush periods can be 90 minutes not 20 in which case a 45 minute trip on the blue line and a bus looks pretty good at $2.50 + .25.
It’s weird that it would be 45 minutes for you from Roscoe Village. Can’t you just take a bus west on Belmont to the Blue Line? I used to live in Roscoe Village, back when it wasn’t populated like it is now, and even then the Belmont bus was a constant.
But yeah, that’s my point. As I said, depends on where you live relative to the Blue Line and what the traffic is like at the time. I live on the south side, so I’m looking at closer to an hour by public trans (fewer options where we live, to get to the Blue Line), but the traffic on the Dan Ryan plus the Kennedy means there are many fewer hours in a week when driving or Ubering would be preferable.
It would be a mistake to think that drivers of traditional cabs were happy and prosperous even before Uber.
The reason Uber and Lyft were so immediately successful was that many cities capped the number of cabs at far, far below the demand, enriching the medallion owners (and enabling them to contribute lavishly to political campaigns) at the expense of drivers and consumers.
This is absolutely true if the service is there 24/7/365 and can be depended upon. But I think it will be a very long while before we get there, given the state of AI, the complexity of decision making behind the wheel, and the risk averseness of manufacturer’s attorneys.
I hope you’re right. But I’m not convinced. Where I live public transport is rather ok. Owning a car is more expensive than using public transport. But people love to complain about public transport (it’s too expensive, too slow, too much hassle) and that way justify owning a car to themselves. Even though for about half the people I know it would probably be cheaper an often faster to use public transport (I live in a city). Of course once you already own the car, public transport seems expensive.
I’m still trying to picture people commuting by pods instead of public transport and how that will clog streets and roads and grossly increase environmental damage along the way. I get how the developers of this nightmare are all excited by it but in normal circumstances, the state would limit the bullshit instead of being enablers.
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