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Comment by treis | Hacker News Reader

>This isn't true. Even if you assume every Uber Pool ride is full, you aren't achieving anywhere near a 50% drop in congestion. Legs where there are 3 passengers are offset by legs where the driver is alone.

This is just quibbling about exact numbers. You don't address the main point that we don't need the space efficiency of trains.

> Pretty much everywhere I've lived, bus/ subway/ BART pricing is way cheaper than Uber. I can get an in-town day pass for $3.50 and can to the next town 20 miles away for less than $5

BART's farebox recovery rate is 2/3 so up those by 50% to get a better idea of actual cost.

And yes, long trips on the train are likely cheaper than Uber. But most trips aren't that. At least, in my city they aren't. If you look at something in the 3-4 mile range the price of mass transit and shared Uber/Lyfts are pretty close.

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> This is just quibbling about exact numbers. You don't address the main point that we don't need the space efficiency of trains.

I gave your hand-wavy explanation of how Uber reduces congestion more credit than it deserves. Most evidence suggest that Uber actually increases congestion, not the reverse.

> And yes, long trips on the train are likely cheaper than Uber. But most trips aren't that.

There is no trip by Uber which is less than twice as expensive than BART or 3 times as expensive as a bus here in Oregon. A short hop on BART is about $2.00 versus the $5.80 base rate on Uber. If your Uber gets stuck in traffic which is common in the Bay, the math gets even worse.

And again, this is in a country with rather mediocre public transportation options. Other countries have vastly better funded and run public transportation which is even more cost effective.

Also, regular commuters would typically buy travelcard, and pay a flat monthly rate for unlimited number of rides.

>I gave your hand-wavy explanation of how Uber reduces congestion more credit than it deserves. Most evidence suggest that Uber actually increases congestion, not the reverse

Ok, well let me know if you want to actually address the point.

>There is no trip by Uber which is less than twice as expensive than BART or 3 times as expensive as a bus here in Oregon. A short hop on BART is about $2.00 versus the $5.80 base rate on Uber. If your Uber gets stuck in traffic which is common in the Bay, the math gets even worse.

(1) The BART may be different than my city

(2) You're looking at the fare and not the actual cost. What's the actual cost of providing those short trips?

(3) You're not looking at the cost to develop new service. What would the actual cost be of creating a new line in the heart of the city?

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