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Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

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It's like there was never a business model there then. Well, in a first world country anyway.

For my area in Los Angeles, it wasn't viable because everyone (or someone you know) has a car. a friend ride is much cheaper than an Uber.

I only download the Uber app when I need to get to the airport and am leaving for weeks at a time. Any other time, I take myself, ask a friend, or even consider what remnants we have of public transportation (e.g. instead of taking a horribly expensive uber in/out of LAX, take a shuttle to some smaller area and then hitch a ride. can easily save 4x the cost for a $5 bus ride and maybe 30-45 extra minutes)

A lot of us won’t ask friends for rides because it’s kind of selfish, I’ll do an uber/lyft every time unless my buddy is right there saying he’s heading that way.

Well I have my car and we tend to alternate carpools, so there's not usually any pressure. I tend to give them $10-20 to cover gas and I still come out way ahead.

I just never get a good time to go to/leave an airport, so that's the only time I resort to Uber.

That seems like a lot of effort, planning, and time to save $20.

Try $150. Trying to Uber out of LAX is highway robbery and they know that. Going from my house to LAX is anywhere from $60-100. Going the other way is anywhere from $100-300, and only gets worse on holidays.

Shuttle to anywhere else is $10 and prices become normal again. Best advice I ever got. That and trying to use other airports where possible.

Next you're going to tell me health and safety laws increase prices?

What about environmental protections?

Do you think that drivers licenses increased prices too? What about vehicle safety and inspection standards?

Not OP but they definitely do increase prices - they are still a good idea though; externalities must be kept in check.

...when the government legislated pay is over $26 per hour. Plenty of business would see higher prices with business-specific pay legislation mandating pay substantially higher than minimum wage.

I sure wish they did more. My dang state passed Prop 22: https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_22,_App-Based...

>App-Based Drivers as Contractors and Labor Policies Initiative (2020)

Sad part is it wasn't even close. Guess capitalism still can buy votes, even ones that work against your best interests as a working class.

Nobody ever made anyone become an Uber driver.

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