| There is a lot of ridiculous hyperbole and disingenuousness in this post so it's a little hard to take seriously. As someone who has lived in New York for the past ten years, the entrance of Uber hasn't changed my life at all, other than some VCs subsidizing/coercing some lower income drivers into taking $10 off my fare when I go to the airport. Public transportation, which you deride, usage utterly dwarfs taxis/ubers/etc (notice all of the large buildings _in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn_ where people work?). The MTA definitely has some issues, but calling it dysfunctional because it takes a little extra time to go from Astoria to Prospect Park is absurd. I don't need to be reminded of the standard, clean, regulated experience I have every time I jump into a yellow or green cab. Boro taxis were introduced into the city _two years after_ Uber entered NYC. How can you possible hand wave them away with "too little too late"? And Uber has its fair share of drivers who have no idea where they're going (actually, definitely more, but I will say they're better about following GPS, which can be both good and bad). They're taking about limited the number and providing a minimum wage, hardly life changing stuff. |
Ehh, depends where in the city you are. When I was super broke I used to live in an out of the way part of Long Island City. 50% of cabs in Manhattan would just refuse to drive there, and once there, good luck finding a yellow or even green cab. The local car service was also pretty unreliable and slow. When Uber came along I suddenly had more options to get home, I was able to reliably get cars to the airport, etc. It was a huge and instant bump in my quality of life.