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    IanHamilton Nolan
    2/03/16 9:39am

    I’ve never really been able to gauge this, but how do the Gawkerites feel about Uber in general? I happen to like them...then I don’t like them...then I like them.

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      PoimanentlyPuckeredIan
      2/03/16 10:11am

      I own a car, so I have no experience with Uber. All I know is what I read on Gawker, so it seems to me that both drivers and passengers take their lives into their hands with every transaction.

      On the whole, if eventually faced with a choice, I’d much rather take a cab.

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      sigmaoctansIan
      2/03/16 11:00am

      Uber and Lyft have had a massive positive effect on the transportation options here in Phoenix. Lots of other people here on Gawker live in cities with big, monopoly, regulated taxi fleets (New York, DC, etc), and must be under the assumption that their urban enclaves are representative of the country as a whole.

      But here in Phoenix, pre-Uber, taxis were a fucking disaster. The combination of no central booking process, no apps or websites, lazy dispatchers who gave estimates like “15-45 minutes”, poor quality cars, and a widespread geographic area meant that cabs were a “only if you plan hours ahead and have a wad of paper cash” proposition. Then you’d have to stand on the corner for 10-20-30 minutes waiting for a car to maybe arrive (if they bothered to get your address right on the phone). Forget street-hailing, that never existed outside a tiny slice of downtown.

      Now that ride-sharing is here, in a city where lots of people own cars anyway (so the driver pool is huge), cars are almost always available within 5 minutes, which was unheard of several hears ago. And taxis themselves have finally been kicked hard in the nuts (which they deserved) and have started improving - there are a smattering of apps now (although many are dysfunctional), most cabs have now been forced to upgrade their payment systems to take cards (instead of holding you hostage saying “GIMME CASH!”), and they are more reliable. And the shittier cab companies have closed up completely, good riddance.

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    Richard M TysonHamilton Nolan
    2/03/16 9:35am

    So is this going to hurt Uber or People attending the Super Bowl? Actually, both types seem awful.

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      BobbySeriousRichard M Tyson
      2/03/16 9:54am

      Actually, pissing off the kind of people who actually go to the superbowl (spoiled wealthy loud mouths) should be pretty beneficial to the cause of the striking drivers.

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      Richard M TysonBobbySerious
      2/03/16 10:00am

      that’s a solid point. win/win!

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    BobbySeriousHamilton Nolan
    2/03/16 9:36am

    Nice.

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      SpringSprungHamilton Nolan
      2/03/16 9:37am

      The striking Uber drivers are fighting an uphill battle. There’s no way they’ll screw up the Superbowl traffic as fantastically as NJ transit did two years ago.

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        SirUnoSpringSprung
        2/03/16 10:12am

        Well, it IS Santa Clara. You’re pretty much fucked anywhere near the stadium anyways. Seriously...this should be good.

        Cue the popcorn gifs.

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      HypnoCatHamilton Nolan
      2/03/16 9:42am

      So where’s the conflict? They are not “employees” and the company bears no responsibility for them, remember?

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        GrizzlyAdamsBeardHamilton Nolan
        2/03/16 9:36am

        “I just want to enter an industry that requires as little work as possible with no experience required that pays well!”

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          SulaymanFGrizzlyAdamsBeard
          2/03/16 11:43am

          But it doesn’t pay well anymore. The reason this is happening is because Uber cut everyone’s pay in an effort to make them worse than Walmart workers, who at least get promised minimum wage. Uber drivers had to buy cars, and now are going to have trouble paying them off.

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        TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Hamilton Nolan
        2/03/16 9:51am

        “Internal contradictions?” Bernie’s rise has HamNo feeling his Marxist oats. Fun stuff.

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          tito_swinefluHamilton Nolan
          2/03/16 12:38pm

          Since the super bowl isn’t in San Francisco, all this will disrupt is some people who live in San Francisco. Which is fine, I’m just pointing out that this has very little to do with the super bowl.

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            SlickWillieHamilton Nolan
            2/03/16 9:36am

            This is really, really good.

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              LobstertailHamilton Nolan
              2/03/16 9:38am

              This would be an awesome plan if not for the fact that regular taxis exist. You’d really only be helping them out honestly.

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