It's Official. Uber is now cheaper than mass transit

593 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Mountainsoloist, Jul 13, 2016

LA Cabbie

Discussion Starter · Jul 13, 2016

http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/07/...-month-costs-less-than-taking-the-subway.html

Commuting to Work in an Uber This Month Costs Less Than Taking the Subway
By Madison Malone Kircher Share Tweet Share ShareEmailComment Slate reports.

The rides are only available from 7 to 10 a.m. and 5 to 8 p.m on weekdays, so you'll have to pay for another Uber or take the subway if you want to get anywhere on a Saturday or Sunday. Using the uberPOOL card to commute back and forth to work brings the cost per ride to just under $2. By comparison, an unlimited monthly MetroCard costs about $116. Which makes Uber a pretty decent deal if you are the kind of person who doesn't need much transportation beyond getting to work each day. (Find out more about purchasing a card here.)

The commuter cards are currently just a one-month promotion and not a long-term product for Uber. Rather, they're an experiment that lets the company dip its toes even deeper into the waters of private mass transit. Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick has made no secret that he believes the answer to traffic problems, like gridlock, is ride-sharing. And while it's easy to laugh at the idea of a man who owns a ride-sharing company promoting ride sharing as the future, he might not be so far off, as traditional subways and roads get more and more crowded each year.

Of course, it's not a perfect fix. At least, not yet. While taking an Uber to work might save you some money over the course of the next month, there are also those days where driving to work, even in a shared ride situation, takes longer than the subway. (This is coming from someone whose commute options are driving down the parking lot known as Second Avenue or taking the dreaded 6 train.) For those days, you're probably still going to need a traditional MetroCard handy. Or you could try the Uber for hot-air balloons.

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Gung-Ho

· #2 · Jul 13, 2016

Travis the genius says the answer for traffic and gridlock is "ride-sharing". WOW!
To think nobody has ever thought until now to encourage people to CARPOOL to work.
What is he gonna come up with next for an innovative game changer? I know! Pay the riders to ride instead of charging them. That would really help eliminate traffic.

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LA Cabbie

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 13, 2016

Please don't give trashyK any thoughts. He just might have the drivers pay to ferry the passengers. Think about the happy feeling you will get when you are part of this game changing innovation that's touching people's lives. On top of all that, you get to deduct 54 cents from your tax bill!

It really astonishes me how the public is sooooo head over heels whenever Uber comes out with a new idea. Oh, they are accepting cash. How innovative. Sorry, but cash has been accepted the day after Gold and Silver were discovered. Surge pricing, what a novel concept to raise prices when demand is up. Sorry, but price gouging has taken place the weekend after they discovered gold and silver. Ooh, aaaah, scheduled rides. The epitome of technology. Sorry, but the taxi industry has been using Time Calls for many decades.

I think this proves what I have known all along, people are not tech savvy at all so they worship Uber since by association they too must be sophisticated.

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tohunt4me

· #4 · Jul 13, 2016

Gung-Ho said:
Travis the genius says the answer for traffic and gridlock is "ride-sharing". WOW!
To think nobody has ever thought until now to encourage people to CARPOOL to work.
What is he gonna come up with next for an innovative game changer? I know! Pay the riders to ride instead of charging them. That would really help eliminate traffic.

Get the workplace to buy and provide the cards.

Another " BENEFIT" like real employers offer.

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tohunt4me

· #5 · Jul 13, 2016

LA Cabbie said:
Please don't give trashyK any thoughts. He just might have the drivers pay to ferry the passengers. Think about the happy feeling you will get when you are part of this game changing innovation that's touching people's lives. On top of all that, you get to deduct 54 cents from your tax bill!

It really astonishes me how the public is sooooo head over heels whenever Uber comes out with a new idea. Oh, they are accepting cash. How innovative. Sorry, but cash has been accepted the day after Gold and Silver were discovered. Surge pricing, what a novel concept to raise prices when demand is up. Sorry, but price gouging has taken place the weekend after they discovered gold and silver. Ooh, aaaah, scheduled rides. The epitome of technology. Sorry, but the taxi industry has been using Time Calls for many decades.

I think this proves what I have known all along, people are not tech savvy at all so they worship Uber since by association they too must be sophisticated.

I see the govt. Subsidising Uber.

Just like Public Transportation.

Coming soon : Uber Prison Bus.
$1.99 a mile ,$2.99 with guard.

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Mountainsoloist

· #6 · Jul 13, 2016

I always liked riding the subway except for all the homeless riders. By making Uber even cheaper I think Travis is going to make the subways nicer at the extra low price of making your car smell like a urinal.

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uberdriverfornow

· #7 · Jul 13, 2016 (Edited)

So basically he's making Uber so cheap that that existing drivers won't drive anymore, then bribing new drivers to drive with bonuses who then only drive to earn the bonus and then stop driving when they see they can't make a living. Then raising more money to subsidise and pay for the same moneylosing venture.

Same old Uber.

So how exactly is his scheme so genius again ?

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tohunt4me

· #8 · Jul 13, 2016

uberdriverfornow said:
So basically he's making Uber so cheap that that existing drivers won't drive anymore, then bribing new drivers to drive with bonuses who then only drive to earn the bonus and then stop driving when they see they make a living. Then raising more money to subsidise and pay for the same moneylosing venture.

Same old Uber.

So how exactly is his scheme so genius again ?

Communist China gets $1 billion a year.
They will never let Ubee succeed.

We should get at least 1/2 that.

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uberdriverfornow

· #9 · Jul 13, 2016

tohunt4me said:
Communist China gets $1 billion a year.
They will never let Ubee succeed.

We should get at least 1/2 that.

People keep investing in Uber because the concept is great and there is potential for it to be very profitable. The problem is, for some reason, the people running Uber don't want to be profitable and I can't really understand why.

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Mountainsoloist

· #10 · Jul 13, 2016

uberdriverfornow said:
So how exactly is his scheme so genius again ?

Because it uses an app!

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