It's Time to Welcome Uber to Jacksonville

[urbanlibertarian]

Why do you think that is?

[funwithteeth]

Marketing, probably.

[johnnyliar]

Why do you think that is?

Lyft drivers are generally young people, personable and excited about driving, not grumpy taxi drivers. It's cheaper and there's a certain stigma attached to taking a taxi home after a night of drinking that does not yet exist with these apps.

[finehoe]

...there's a certain stigma attached to taking a taxi home after a night of drinking ...

There is?  Really?  I've never heard of such a thing.

[funwithteeth]

I don't know about taxi stigmas, but the rest of johnnyliar's comments plays into my "marketing, probably" post. Lyft (or Uber) is seen as this hip, new thing that you gotta try, even though it's just a tech-friendly version of something that's been around for decades.

[Tacachale]

^It also has good word of mouth that it's more reliable than traditional taxis. Around here, it's not a terribly rare experience to have cabs demand an exact time for pickup, show up late, or not show at all.

[ProjectMaximus]

As everyone has said...far more reliable and easier transaction than taxis. You don't need to have any cash at all. Also generally cheaper than taxis in Jax, especially for short routes.

[finehoe]

Anyway: the big benefit from new IT-mediated car services will come if they make it possible for lots of people — and not just people in Manhattan — to live without owning their own cars. And if you think about it, you can see how that might work.
Right now, if you live in places without exceptionally good public transportation, it's very difficult to manage without a car. Yet when you think about it, for most people owning a car is quite wasteful. It's an expensive item of equipment that sits idle most of the time; it requires parking (and often a parking structure) both at origin and at destination; it requires maintenance and is a big hassle all around.
So reliable, quick-response chauffeur services could free many people from the need to tie up all those resources in a consumer durable that they only use now and then. And from a social point of view it would avoid the need to tie up so much capital that sits unused most of the time.
There is, however, an obvious problem: rush hour. Peak car use comes twice a day, and that would seem to dictate that we have nearly as many cars as we do now even if they're supplied by the likes of Uber.
But here's where surge pricing comes in. If traveling during peak hours is more expensive than off-peak, people will have an incentive to shave off those peaks. People who aren't commuting to work will avoid travel at peak hours; some people will find other ways to travel; some people (and businesses) will rearrange their schedules to take advantage of cheaper off-peak travel. So you can imagine a society that still relies mainly on cars to get around, but manages to do this with significantly fewer cars than we need at present.
Cars aren't the only consumer durable where something like this might work, of course. People in New York don't need refrigerators (and in particular freezers) that are as big as those in the suburbs, because it's so easy to pop around the corner for groceries; online ordering and delivery could produce a similar effect outside the city. But cars are surely the big prize.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/life-without-cars/?_php=true&_type=blogs&module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body&_r=0

[Josh]

It sounds like the honeymoon is over for Uber/Lyft as far as the city council is concerned.

http://members.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2014-08-05/story/jacksonville-city-council-members-want-tougher-penalties-uber-lyft

[mtraininjax]

I don't think Jack Shad should be going after Uber/Lyft here. While not his father, Mike Shad, who built a nice business and sold it off, Jack does bring a great love of Jacksonville to his job. If you hear the Taxi Owners, Uber/Lyft is leaving taxi cab drivers to "starve", which we all know is complete BS. I only hope Jack can find some middle ground on such a non-issue.

Uber/Lyft are great for Jax, and to tax them, make them hold medallions is joke, taxi companies need to get with the new system, not everyone wants a dingy smelly taxi for their next trip across town.

[urbanlibertarian]

Government protecting existing businesses from competition at the expense of consumers=crony capitalism.

[finehoe]

Uber announced that is testing an option that enables its users to split fares on rides with strangers who are traveling on a similar route.

UberPool works like the regular Uber service, except it pairs users up with another rider, and notifies them of their co-rider's first name. Launched in private beta, users can sign up to get notified when UberPool goes live in certain areas.

http://mashable.com/2014/08/05/uber-announces-carpooling-for-rides/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link

[funwithteeth]

Had my first Jax-based taxi experience in years the other day. Forgot about Uber, so I called Gator City because it was the only number I knew without looking it up. I was told it'd be 15 minutes or less; after 30 minutes of nothing, I called again, only to be told it would still be 15 minutes or less. Another 10 minutes passed, I get a call from the driver who was irate that I wasn't where in Baymeadows I said I'd be. Never mind that I was in Mandarin, never mind that the street address was in Mandarin, never mind that she recited the exact street address which indicated she wasn't completely clueless. Annoyed at having to wait so long and furious that she was taking this attitude with me, I start yelling at her, to which she was says if I had called from the Starbucks phone (I was at a Starbucks) rather than my cell phone, none of this would have happened. Rather than ask her what the hell was she talking about, I hung up. Called Gator City again and canceled my ride, even though I doubt the assigned driver was going to come anyway after our row.

Then I tried Uber. The ride arrived in less than 10 minutes. A+ will use again.

EDIT: Jeez, typing that I found myself still getting angry over my Gator City experience, two days removed from it.

[Lunican]

http://blog.uber.com/uberpool

[Tacachale]

Just figure out what other cities do and adapt it for our needs. I just used Uber yesterday, and it's unfathomably better than the service you get from standard cab companies. It would be ridiculous to crack down on them for having a better service.