Re:The Uber Bombshell About to Drop
by partiallypro on Monday March 13, 2017 @06:22PM
(#13863060)
How is what Austin did good? It dissuades capital investment and innovation. City governments were why rides were so expensive and service was poor for decades upon decades. Taxi licensing and medallions priced out everyone. Soon Austin's city government could easily be "captured" and limit the number of drivers, driving up ride prices and stifling competition. That wouldn't be market demand driving (unlike surge pricing.) That's actually why they passed the measure in the first place, the taxi lobby was incredibly strong. Now people I know in Austin use work around to use Uber.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
> That's actually why they passed the measure in the first place, the taxi lobby was incredibly strong.
No the measure passed because Uber and Lyft failed to understand Austin culture and shot themselves in the foot by annoying Austinites with intrusive tactics that made them look bad in the eyes of a local culture that tends to be fiercely anti big business. It's the same type of mistake Airbnb made in SF with their big marketing campaign of 2015 that just offended everyone.
Re:The Uber Bombshell About to Drop
by partiallypro on Monday March 13, 2017 @06:34PM
(#13863150)
That's not what I've heard from insiders.
As someone who voted "against" Uber/Lyft, I can promise you their PACs misleading and blatantly false propaganda regarding the city ordinance directly caused them to lose my vote. That and people love getting 4 fliers per day in their mailbox.
Good riddance.
Re:The Uber Bombshell About to Drop
by partiallypro on Saturday March 18, 2017 @09:28PM
(#13904603)
Cool, but your vote has little to do with the political reality that pushed the initiative to politicians putting it up to vote.
Well then share what you heard.
Re:The Uber Bombshell About to Drop
by partiallypro on Saturday March 18, 2017 @09:29PM
(#13904606)
Politicians were captured by the taxi industry and exploited the liberal environment of Austin to achieve an effective ban on larger sharing services. What more is there to know?
"How is what Austin did good? It dissuades capital investment and innovation."
I don't believe that for a second. Especially because the exact regulations that Austin put into place are followed by Uber in other places.
Are you kidding? They proceeded to create an incubator of competitors with both of the biggest players out of the way. I've watched several of these apps grow and thrive because of the market that Uber & Lyft created and then abandoned.
Re:The Uber Bombshell About to Drop
by partiallypro on Saturday March 18, 2017 @09:29PM
(#13904607)
Banning Google would create a lot of small competitors too, that doesn't mean that's a good thing to do.