Which is only a value proposition if you're an agoraphobe - the trip takes eons compared to the subway.
There was some good discussion on the NYC subreddit when Uber rolled this out, and the general consensus was against it (including people who used it). Manhattan traffic during rush hour is awful - a cab is already likely slower than the train, even without the additional pooled passengers.
Add the pooled passengers and suddenly your commute becomes a full-hour affair - and some users reported exactly this sort of duration just getting from the UES to Midtown.
IMO the (genuine, deserved) popularity of ride-hailing around the US is less a validation of that specific transportation model and more an indictment of our utter failure to produce working mass transit. Where we have effective mass transit (and the MTA isn't even that good) the value proposition of ride hailing starts to fall apart. Ride-hailing is a local maxima, not a global maxima of transportation.
There was some good discussion on the NYC subreddit when Uber rolled this out, and the general consensus was against it (including people who used it). Manhattan traffic during rush hour is awful - a cab is already likely slower than the train, even without the additional pooled passengers.
Add the pooled passengers and suddenly your commute becomes a full-hour affair - and some users reported exactly this sort of duration just getting from the UES to Midtown.
IMO the (genuine, deserved) popularity of ride-hailing around the US is less a validation of that specific transportation model and more an indictment of our utter failure to produce working mass transit. Where we have effective mass transit (and the MTA isn't even that good) the value proposition of ride hailing starts to fall apart. Ride-hailing is a local maxima, not a global maxima of transportation.