Uber

By now most of us know what this is, even if we’ve rarely used it as a passenger and never as a driver.  So my point here is not so much to de-clueless everyone, rather simply to offer my own opinion and thoughts on this issue.

For those of you living in caves without Internet access and thus unable to read my Facebook blogs, Uber is a ridesharing app that lets ordinary people arrange transportation from other relatively ordinary people (non-cab drivers) using their own private vehicles.  No direct payment occurs as the rider pays through online banking to Uber, and the driver gets paid the same way through Uber.  It relies on GPS and smartphones, so if you have neither, you might have a problem.  However, you can call and arrange Uber for someone else, e.g. an older parent without a cell phone.

Passenger.   I’ve used it a few times, more often lately to get to concerts in DC in neighborhoods where parking is nonexistent.  It also allows you to drink or consume mind-altering substances which would normally preclude driving.  (No comment).  It also helps people from out of town, they simply punch in their origin and destination and let the Uber driver worry about how to get from one to the other.  In between the issues of parking, driving, navigation, etc. I’d say that Uber is quite practical for many people – myself included. 

It’s available overseas:  my brother used it in Paris, while we simply took the Metro and RER. 

Driver.   Lately I’ve been driving more often.   I never considered myself a cab driver and don’t watch much “Taxi”.  As a practical matter, being an Uber driver makes you a de facto cab driver, albeit driving your own car. 

Uber tells you how to get to where you’re picking up your passenger, and once picked up, how to get to where they’re going.  It’s not perfect:  it’s told me to go through construction barriers and chain link fences.  Not to worry, though: if you have to detour, Uber will readjust and send you where you’re going by an alternate route.  Sometimes there’s a lag, though.

You accumulate a balance and can cash out fairly efficiently.  I’ve yet to ascertain whether I’m earning more in fares than spending for gas (89 octane for a 370 HP 5.7L V8 which gets 15 mpg in city driving) but my subjective impression is that yes, I am – though (Judas) Prius drivers undoubtedly have a better margin than me. 

Meeting new people is really not the thing for me.  Half my rides keep quiet and focus on their cell phones, others actually engage me in conversation.  I’m driving a 2009 Dodge Charger R/T with Flowmaster mufflers, which sometimes elicits comments from male passengers.   It’s unlikely any female passenger would notice if I was driving a Hellcat (700 HP).    Incidentally, your car has to be a sedan or an SUV, so Corvette, Camaro, Mustang and Challenger drivers need not apply.

For me the most fun part is finding new parts of town I might otherwise never visit.   Southeast DC in particular has been dramatically built up and is much more upscale.   That’s an adventure in itself.  But it’s also fun when the trip returns to familiar neighborhoods like the 14 Street corridor, Adams Morgan, and my own part of Northern Virginia. 

Most often I wind up picking up someone in Northern Virginia, taking them into DC, and getting a new trip set up before I’ve even dropped off the first passenger.  Eventually a DC passenger asks to be taken to suburban Maryland or Virginia and my shift ends – until I get ANOTHER fare just blocks from home.  Very often DC winds up being back-to-back fares, but the stop-go nonsense means the return on investment is less than you’d hope for.  The ideal fare is from DC out to somewhere in the suburbs.  But I can’t always count on that. 

Uber passengers can POOL, which means I’m picking up a series of passengers and dropping them off.  Pooling is cheaper for them, but unfortunately likewise less lucrative for me.  An ideal arrangement is a series of passengers, not a pool.  Shrug.

PEEVE.  Sometimes I arrive at the location and my passenger is nowhere to be found.  No-shows are fairly common, though thankfully not the majority of instances.  The other issue is when my passenger is a block away OR on the other side of the street.  Hint: it’s easier for a passenger to cross the street and get into the car, than it is for me to drive around the block, especially somewhere like DC.

PEEVE 2.  Some of DC’s streets are still not in good shape.  The city streets are nominally well set-up – numbered streets run north-south, lettered streets run east-west, state streets are diagonal, with the city bifurcated into NE/NW/SE/SW by Independence & Constitution Ave. & the Mall (north-south) and North and South Capitol Streets (east-west).  Much of what we’d think of as “SW” is actually Arlington County, Virginia, so SW DC is fairly small. 

Despite that, there are way too many dead ends, one-way streets, circles, confusing intersections, and so forth, which seriously compromise the city’s otherwise sensible format.   When it comes to planning the exceptions, I suspect DC paid the least expensive and least qualified person, e.g. Mayor Barry in a highly compromised state, to handle this. 

Long term, I’d wonder if less people wind up buying vehicles altogether and begin relying upon Uber. I don’t see it as practical to commute every day, but we’ll see.  I tried signing up for NYC as well, but Uber won’t let you be registered in multiple metropolitan areas simultaneously.  For that matter, I don’t know if DC includes Baltimore.  I dare say I’ll find out.  I’m also curious about the maximum range:  “take me to Hawaii”. 

one way to find out….