7 ms·

This used to be very common in the US especially around airports where drivers wait for up to an hour to get a fare and want to make sure it's worth the wait. I

This used to be very common in the US especially around airports where drivers wait for up to an hour to get a fare and want to make sure it's worth the wait. It may still be happening, but I just go straight for the cab to avoid the hassle.

lxgr 2y ago
The US airport rideshare model (if you even want to call a largely emergent phenomenon that) must be one of the most wasteful things in transportation ever. Why do I have to wait for, and find, my specific Uber/Lyft out of a sea of otherwise identical ones that are all in each other's way, all while idling and wasting tons of fuel? (I know that the legal answer is "taxi medallions"; that doesn't make it any less absurd.)
- paxys 2y ago
  1. You pick the kind of car you want (sedan, SUV, luxury, with a child seat, pet friendly, EV). 2. The driver can choose the areas they want to drive in. 3. Cars can wait in an airport parking lot until they are needed and not crowd the terminal. It is a perfectly efficient model.
  - lxgr 2y ago
    > 1. You pick the kind of car you want (sedan, SUV, luxury, with a child seat, pet friendly, EV). I'd be willing to pay extra to just get whatever car is right there. I really couldn't care less about most of these modes, and I doubt that the vast majority of other passengers do either (maybe with the exception of a child seat). > It is a perfectly efficient model. You've clearly never been to JFK then.
    - paxys 2y ago
      JFK is a mess because it cannot accommodate the amount of traffic it gets. And you want to add thousands of Ubers standing at the gate waiting for passengers? > I'd be willing to pay extra to just get whatever car is right there So then just go to the taxi stand? Why even call an Uber?
      - lxgr 2y ago
        What would be so hard about allowing a new Uber/Lyft in for each leaving one, physically or logically? Uber/Lyft could allocate the "new car in" slots using whatever mechanism they currently use to match riders to drivers. Having to find "my" car is just completely backwards in the airport scenario, at least at times of high usage.
        paxys 2y ago
        Because cars aren't allowed to idle at the terminal. They wait in a queue in the parking lot until they are matched, and then come pick you up. Yes this means you have to wait a couple minutes extra, but airports enforce this rule for a reason.
        lxgr 2y ago
        > airports enforce this rule for a reason. What is that reason, and why are things handled so differently for taxis?
        paxys 2y ago
        Have you tried writing to your local airport authority and asking them the reason? Or are you automatically assuming that there's a grand conspiracy at play against you? In most cases it's a simple capacity problem. Taxis have to be hailed physically, and there are already reserved taxi stands at every airport. There's no reason for that to change.
        lxgr 2y ago
        I don't think this is a conspiracy at all, just a pretty standard case of an incumbent getting preferential treatment (why else do taxis get a reserved taxi stand, but Uber/Lyft don't?) and an "innovator" disrupting at any cost and externalizing the consequences (in this case congestion throughout the terminal and surrounding streets). A more efficient stable state is clearly not being reached through market forces, but since there will never be agreement on whether that's due to too little (get rid of the medallions!) or too much market liberalization (ban the rideshares!!), and the only thing everybody can agree on is that a public transit solution is impossible, I don't see any way out.
- sshine 2y ago
  What. I've never heard anything this stupid. I've only encountered the following two airport systems: 1) There's a queue of taxis and people coming out go to the first one. 2) There's a queue of people, and an airport person tells you when you can go to the next taxi. Depending on whether there's too many people or too many taxis.
  - paxys 2y ago
    Uber/Lyft's system is that taxis wait in a (virtual) queue in an airport parking lot, and when you request one they come to the terminal to pick you up.
    - lxgr 2y ago
      Yeah, and that's arguably absurd. It creates dozens of people and dozens of cars all in each other's way. It's complete and utter chaos I've not experienced in any other country.
      - nradov 2y ago
        No, that's not how it works. The ride share drivers wait in a parking lot near the airport. Then when you hail one using the app they come pick you up in a designated zone. The app notifies you when your car arrives and you can check the license plate. It works fine most of the time, there's very little chaos. Have you ever even been to a US airport?
        lxgr 2y ago
        > Have you ever even been to a US airport? Yes, I travel to/from US airports all the time. This is based on my personal experiences there. Admittedly, there are some where it does work a bit better (NYC does seem to be particularly bad, but fortunately at least JFK has the AirTrain; EWR seems to be giving up on theirs). But all in all, the experience is notably worse than in most other countries I've been to.
        cozzyd 2y ago
- mrgoldenbrown 2y ago
  I think the answer is more that Uber has externalized the cost of all that waste. Why do they care about increased traffic and increased pollution if they aren't the ones hiring extra staties to manage the chaos?
  - lxgr 2y ago
    Given that Uber isn't charging (and by extension isn't earning anything) on the time drivers spend to get to the pick up point, I doubt that they don't have any economic interest in doing something better than the status quo. I think this really is an artifact of the taxi medallion system which regulates private car transportation differently depending on the way you hail it, for largely historical reasons. (Taxis that you can just flag down used to be much more profitable, to the point where a license for that used to go for more than a million USD in NYC.)
- gopkarthik 2y ago
  Uber/Ola at Indian airports do not actually assign you specific driver/car. You are given a PIN & asked to go queue at the relevant counter (Premier, Electric, XL, Go etc). You just get into the car then, tell your PIN & the ride starts.

lxgr 2y ago

The US airport rideshare model (if you even want to call a largely emergent phenomenon that) must be one of the most wasteful things in transportation ever. Why do I have to wait for, and find, my specific Uber/Lyft out of a sea of otherwise identical ones that are all in each other's way, all while idling and wasting tons of fuel? (I know that the legal answer is "taxi medallions"; that doesn't make it any less absurd.)

paxys 2y ago
1. You pick the kind of car you want (sedan, SUV, luxury, with a child seat, pet friendly, EV). 2. The driver can choose the areas they want to drive in. 3. Cars can wait in an airport parking lot until they are needed and not crowd the terminal. It is a perfectly efficient model.
- lxgr 2y ago
  > 1. You pick the kind of car you want (sedan, SUV, luxury, with a child seat, pet friendly, EV). I'd be willing to pay extra to just get whatever car is right there. I really couldn't care less about most of these modes, and I doubt that the vast majority of other passengers do either (maybe with the exception of a child seat). > It is a perfectly efficient model. You've clearly never been to JFK then.
  - paxys 2y ago
    JFK is a mess because it cannot accommodate the amount of traffic it gets. And you want to add thousands of Ubers standing at the gate waiting for passengers? > I'd be willing to pay extra to just get whatever car is right there So then just go to the taxi stand? Why even call an Uber?
    - lxgr 2y ago
      What would be so hard about allowing a new Uber/Lyft in for each leaving one, physically or logically? Uber/Lyft could allocate the "new car in" slots using whatever mechanism they currently use to match riders to drivers. Having to find "my" car is just completely backwards in the airport scenario, at least at times of high usage.
      - paxys 2y ago
        Because cars aren't allowed to idle at the terminal. They wait in a queue in the parking lot until they are matched, and then come pick you up. Yes this means you have to wait a couple minutes extra, but airports enforce this rule for a reason.
        lxgr 2y ago
        > airports enforce this rule for a reason. What is that reason, and why are things handled so differently for taxis?
        paxys 2y ago
        Have you tried writing to your local airport authority and asking them the reason? Or are you automatically assuming that there's a grand conspiracy at play against you? In most cases it's a simple capacity problem. Taxis have to be hailed physically, and there are already reserved taxi stands at every airport. There's no reason for that to change.
        lxgr 2y ago
        I don't think this is a conspiracy at all, just a pretty standard case of an incumbent getting preferential treatment (why else do taxis get a reserved taxi stand, but Uber/Lyft don't?) and an "innovator" disrupting at any cost and externalizing the consequences (in this case congestion throughout the terminal and surrounding streets). A more efficient stable state is clearly not being reached through market forces, but since there will never be agreement on whether that's due to too little (get rid of the medallions!) or too much market liberalization (ban the rideshares!!), and the only thing everybody can agree on is that a public transit solution is impossible, I don't see any way out.
sshine 2y ago
What. I've never heard anything this stupid. I've only encountered the following two airport systems: 1) There's a queue of taxis and people coming out go to the first one. 2) There's a queue of people, and an airport person tells you when you can go to the next taxi. Depending on whether there's too many people or too many taxis.
- paxys 2y ago
  Uber/Lyft's system is that taxis wait in a (virtual) queue in an airport parking lot, and when you request one they come to the terminal to pick you up.
  - lxgr 2y ago
    Yeah, and that's arguably absurd. It creates dozens of people and dozens of cars all in each other's way. It's complete and utter chaos I've not experienced in any other country.
    - nradov 2y ago
      No, that's not how it works. The ride share drivers wait in a parking lot near the airport. Then when you hail one using the app they come pick you up in a designated zone. The app notifies you when your car arrives and you can check the license plate. It works fine most of the time, there's very little chaos. Have you ever even been to a US airport?
      - lxgr 2y ago
        > Have you ever even been to a US airport? Yes, I travel to/from US airports all the time. This is based on my personal experiences there. Admittedly, there are some where it does work a bit better (NYC does seem to be particularly bad, but fortunately at least JFK has the AirTrain; EWR seems to be giving up on theirs). But all in all, the experience is notably worse than in most other countries I've been to.
      - cozzyd 2y ago
mrgoldenbrown 2y ago
I think the answer is more that Uber has externalized the cost of all that waste. Why do they care about increased traffic and increased pollution if they aren't the ones hiring extra staties to manage the chaos?
- lxgr 2y ago
  Given that Uber isn't charging (and by extension isn't earning anything) on the time drivers spend to get to the pick up point, I doubt that they don't have any economic interest in doing something better than the status quo. I think this really is an artifact of the taxi medallion system which regulates private car transportation differently depending on the way you hail it, for largely historical reasons. (Taxis that you can just flag down used to be much more profitable, to the point where a license for that used to go for more than a million USD in NYC.)
gopkarthik 2y ago
Uber/Ola at Indian airports do not actually assign you specific driver/car. You are given a PIN & asked to go queue at the relevant counter (Premier, Electric, XL, Go etc). You just get into the car then, tell your PIN & the ride starts.