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I agree with everything you've said. I live in a Chicago neighborhood people might describe as "sketchy," and while cabbies were fine driving me there, getting a cab from my neighborhood was and is an exercise in futility. Before ridesharing became common, I had the same experience flagging cabs for black people. One time I watched several cabs drive past a young black woman with a child in a stroller. I stood slightly up the block from her, and flagged a cab for her. The cabbie drove off with their trunk open after they realized that I had flagged them for the mother rather than for myself. I've actually experienced problems getting Ubers and Lyfts in my neighborhood as well though. I live close to a highway, and I'll often get drivers who are on the highway heading westbound, towards one of the wealthiest suburbs in the Chicago area. I'll watch on my map as they "miss" several exits in a row and keep heading west. I've kept my map open long enough to watch them get off on the exit for the nice suburb. With Lyft and Uber, I have a recourse though, because I know their name, and I can watch where they actually end up. I've noticed that as time has gone on, more and more of the drivers are from my neighborhood or other similar neighborhoods nearby. This has become one of my favorite things about ride sharing. My neighborhood has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the United States. In certain areas, more than half of the young adult males are unemployed. Lyft and Uber, and the gig economy, have created access to economic opportunities that they wouldn't have otherwise had. That being said, I think "gig employment" is a poor replacement for normal (W4) jobs, since they don't come with the same legal protections and benefits. |
Only as long as drivers are needed.