I thought that was clear. What were you confusing that with? I'm trying to understand what you initially thought it was.

not op, but i assumed the 'upfront' would fund the rides as well, vs. just 'unlocking' them. i read it as more of an initial prepayment.

Same; this is how it read to me. I was confused seeing this in the comments.

The unclear part was the portion where you select how many rides you want. $30/40 rides doesn't exactly clearly imply that you're paying to pay for flat rates. Not saying that it's not on the page, or that they're hiding details, just that they definitely obscured that element.

Agree, not really sure what the alternative would be?

I would pay that in a heartbeat because daily commute costs via Metro is $2.50 (ignoring any pre-tax discounts I get). So for a four week month it costs $50 to take public transportation twice daily. For $110 I get a shared ride door to door? Sign me up. Except of course neither this or UberPool is offered in Houston so I guess we can all just suck it. Oh well. It would be nice.

Population density is actually increasing in Houston's inner city. It would be an interesting experiment for Uber to at least try pooling inside our 610 loop area.

The ride also has to begin and end in the given area (north of Cesar Chavez street). And if the ride is over $25 you pay the difference. That means SOMA to sunset at 1.7 surge won't be the flat rate at all.

I pay more than that in tolls going to work in a month, let alone gasoline, wear-and-tear, and frustration.