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Comment by benbristow | Hacker News Reader

$10-15 for a drink? Of liquid gold?

$10 for a drink in Los Angeles is absolutely not out of the ordinary. A $10 cocktail is happy-hour price. A $10 glass of wine is going to be basic stuff. $15 for a good cocktail or wine is the going rate.

I also mentioned Atlanta and Houston. Both of those are within 10%. I'm picking these because they are large, urban, car-dependent areas that, at least in my opinion, are more livable with ridesharing than without it.

A quick addition: the numbers will be higher in NYC and SF, but I don't get a lot of value from Uber in either. Uber in SF proper is slow and expensive, and the transit is pretty good. Cabs are better than rideshare in New York, and the transit is also good. Rideshare is nice for for the outskirts of either city, but, anecdotally, it certainly hasn't changed my behaviors in either. Rideshare totally changed the game in LA.

Ride sharing is of tremendous value in the Bay Area since BART irresponsibly stops service at 12:30am. People living in the East Bay often go into SF to drink, so getting home after bars close is a lot easier now.

Of course the somewhat ironic thing for people living in the East Bay is that Oakland's social scene has emerged at roughly the same time as ride sharing, so people don't need to go into SF to drink as much as they used to. But ride sharing is still useful for getting to/from Oakland.

I never understood that about BART. Why were its hours never extended? It seems like that'd be a sure thing to pass if it makes even a small impact on driving fatalities. I doubt that the taxi union had sway over this?

BART does not have duplicate tracks, unlike the transit systems in most other major metropolitan areas. The few hours that it stops overnight are required for maintenance. It's basically not an option for BART to run 24/7.

24/7 isn't required. Since last call is at 2am, running until 3am on Sat and Sun would make a huge difference and cost them 5 hrs of maintenance time. That's probably still a problem, but it seems like a solvable one.

BART published a study a few years ago saying the tracks need to be closed 4 hours every night. They said since people riding early in the morning are more likely to be people of color than those riding late at night, that shifting service times later would be "racist" because it would have a disproportionate effect on people of color. Typical 21st-century bureaucratic tactic to stifle discussion.

Yeah, you're right. I definitely take uber at night in the city.

In most 'city' markets, beers tend to be $6, drinks tend to be $10. Add tip and you are at $12. Go to a higher end bar, you are at $15.

Pretty typical price range for a cocktail in a major (or even not so major) city. Even a beer is, outside of happy hour prices, getting near $10 with tip.

I'm in New Haven which is pretty minor as far as cities go. $10 with tip is par for the course for cocktails here. Beers are a couple bucks cheaper.

For a pitcher?

For a bottle.

Or in a German restaurant, 500ml. 1 liter of beer goes for $16-18

I was thinking the same thing, especially when a bus across town is €1.50 or so. But I also hear stories about high rent and high salaries... I suppose it makes sense if everything there is just very expensive.

Don’t come to New York. It’s at least that for a cocktail or glass of wine.

Ever been to a large city?

More like a hastily made, watered down well drink.

$8 for a beer in a lot of places these days, $15+ for a cocktail. Another reason the bar scene in expensive cities is pointless. In small towns, a beer can be as cheap as $2 or free if the beverage vendor rep is passing out samples (ie whole bottles of beer).

Big-box stores for beer by the case and make your own beer.

Access to alcohol is not really the driving motivation to go to a bar

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