What do you guys think of Uber's threat to leave Houston

Oh, I'm not suggesting that any of the politicians are actually greasing. I'm more suggesting that there are some interest groups on either side of the fight. (whether city hall or Uber) that felt the changing of the guard in Houston would allow this behavior, whether it be from Houston side maybe requiring additional things to allow the Taxi Services to benefit or from Uber's side as you suggest.

 

It would mean paulwtfk will also have to leave Houston and become an uber driver in another city to pay off his Tesla

Sad day for the city of Houston if that happens

 

Also means that he will also be taking his summer basketball camp of teaching the quick release with him. Think about the children people. The Children.... Vote accordingly.

 

Ok, so, what is Uber exactly?

I get that it's some kind of taxi service.. how can it be so ridiculously popular? Don't people have cars? How do you pay? You just have to trust a literal stranger to show up and drive you around?

It's hard to imagine a more awkward uncomfortable experience.

I don't get it.

 

And what is this internet thing I've been hearing about?

 

I use it for concerts, dinners, sports events, pretty much for anything I will be having more than one drink at.

You download the app, take a picture of your face that will show on the Uber drivers app so they know who they're picking up and enter in your CC # into the app. You don't have to pay after the ride, you're automatically billed. Most drivers will also not accept tips. You can choose cheaper ride, black car ride, SUV rides and the App will show you the cost for each. They also don't allow POS cars and the cars are always clean.

I have had only one bad experience and it was from an African who had just moved here from Africa. He didn't even know his way around. The other 100 or so have been excellent, but I always use black or SUV. I've met some great people doing this as a side job and I have never felt unsafe, ever. Always nice cars, free water, etc. No dirty cab smell or riding in those pieces of **** Cabs. Plus cabs are unreliable as hell. Uber shows you where exactly a car is and how many are in the area. Once you reserve it, you can watch the car on your app all the way into your driveway.

Big, big fan. I would get sick to my stomach having to ride Yellow Cab again. I travel a lot and use Uber everywhere. It's not awkward or uncomfortable at all, but then again I'm no introvert.

 

Big whoop. It's easy enough to call a regular cab that I can't see why I would use uber.

 

^^^

Has never used Uber. Most likely never travels for business, utterly clueless but posted in thread anyways. 99% sure does not live in the "city" or inner loop. Cabs are filthy pieces of **** with rude ass drivers. Uber is the exact opposite.

 

Maybe in Houston they are ****ty, or cabs are better, but in San Diego Uber was a way better option for me. Cabs had a wait time of 30 min, uber was 10, cabs were old and nasty, Uber was modern cars that were clean. Uber offered water and snacks, cabs were meh. Uber was also roughly the same price as a cab. I can't say enough good about my experience with Uber.

 

Like I said in my post above, I literally use Uber in town 5-15 times a month and over a hundred times since they came in town. I've had one bad experience. With cabs I would have multiple in a month alone.

 

add to this that the cost is significantly cheaper than a cab and the time to pickup is significantly shorter.

That said - I'm not opposed to decent security w/respect to background checks.

 

It's much cheaper, significantly faster, and usually better service.

 

I was sort of giving him the benefit of the doubt. My only complaint is sometimes you get the occasional conservative nutjob (or liberal nutjob, but far less often) and they try and convert you in the car. One star that guy like no other.

 

Only two cities in the US require a fingerprint check. Houston and Austin

Uber has their own background check, like any company. I don't know why the city feels the need to force an additional background check of their own on drivers, other than they are protecting taxi cabs (which are a terrible service in Houston)

 

All this to drive with a passenger?

Friggin joke

 

The Taxi companies are the reason there is no rail option to the airports. They're in the councils ear 24/7. F*** Taxis.

 

Perhaps, but isn't the taxi industry also subject to various more stringent regulations than Uber currently is? Be it licensing, or how they treat their "employees" - eg, as employees instead of contractors, etc.

The model seems to be different for what is essentially the same service... which makes it hard to figure out what is right, or wrong, and you should vote for or shouldn't vote for.

I'm in Austin, and with young kids am not out a lot, needing to use Uber or Lyft. But my young kids will be driving kids one day, and anything that gets more drunk people off the road without being some crazy bad service otherwise I think has to stay.

But I think taxi companies should be subject to the same exact rules.

 

That is absolutely not true. Building rail to IAH would be nuts. The cost would never be viable.

As for Hobby, while the Purple line could theoretically go all the way to Hobby, I haven't seen a shred of evidence to suggest that the "taxi lobby" killed that. I'm also not convinced its viable.

I live in a city where the city happily built the light rail to the airport but our airport is also better located. Nonetheless, the taxis never really objected to it. They did fine because the light rail really only took away people who wanted to go directly from the airport to downtown. Anyone who wanted to go to their house still had to use taxis. And they even legalized Uber pickups at the airport in a lot of cities. So I'm not sure what bargaining strength taxi drivers have.

Please provide me some evidence that the mythical taxi lobby somehow derailed public transit from airports. The bigger problem is that the location of both airports make rail lines extremely challenging. Plus Houston's overall sprawling layout makes rail as a whole really hard to properly design.

 

That's how I feel about it. If a company wants to rideshare, they should follow the same background checks in place for other companies.