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Re:Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a persona... by paulcole on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @02:51PM (#16161669)
This is one of the few cases where I was ahead of my time.

I turned 16 about 20 years ago and had 0 interest in a driver's license. I lived in an extremely rural area. My parents (rightly) said that I'd need to get a job to pay for a car. I figured why bother since I'd be paying for a car to drive to the job where I'd make money to pay for the car.

Seemed like a complete waste of time and effort.

20 years later, I still have no plans to get a license but have changed my tune on work a bit.

Re:Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a persona... by ryanianian on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @03:38PM (#16162260)
So you're relying on friends/family to do the driving if you're outside of lyft/public-transit areas e.g. on vacation in a rental car? Not having a car is a great idea if you can get away with it - not having a license basically means you can't help out when necessary.
Re:Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a persona... by icebraining on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @05:12PM (#16163218)
It's funny the difficulty that car owner show at understanding non-car-owners. Why would you assume that someone without a driver's license would go on vacation in a rental car in the first place?

By the way, this might not be true in the US, but in other places there's usually some sort of shared transit. Even if it's not a city bus or a ride-sharing network, there's usually some person with an unofficial "taxi" that drives others if you give them a call, or someone with a passenger van that makes a weekly trip to a city for a few regulars.

Old and poor people everywhere can't drive cars, so these solutions are widespread, you just need to ask around (calling the local shops usually does the trick).

Re:Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a persona... by goialoq on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @07:31PM (#16164346)
Old and poor people suffer severe lifestyle degradations, the don't simply avoid the "waste" of care expenses.
Re:Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a persona... by icebraining on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @08:18PM (#16164646)
I'm not sure what made you think I meant otherwise. All I'm saying is that their situation happens to create a viable market for people willing to drive others around. I wasn't saying they were "lucky" for not being able to own a car, or anything like that.
Re:Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a persona... by paulcole on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @04:38PM (#16162920)
>So you're relying on friends/family to do the driving if you're outside of lyft/public-transit areas e.g. on vacation in a rental car

I actually have moral objections to both Lyft and Uber. Other than that I only take vacations in places where public transit is an option. For more rural vacations, I usually just ride my bike there. Plenty of fun places to bike to from where I live (Portland, OR).

Otherwise, yes, someone else does the driving. My partner and I go out of town by car once or twice a year and she drives.

Re:Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a persona... by vidarh on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @03:57PM (#16162486)
It doesn't become necessary unless you make it necessary. It makes some places harder or more expensive to get to, but there are plenty of other places to go to.

It's a tradeoff, and obviously if you want to go places where there's no public transport options at all on a regular basis, it's probably a good idea to at least have a license, but for my part that's simply been enough of a reason to bother getting a license.

Re:Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a persona... by megy on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @10:39PM (#16165276)
Why would this person hire a car on a holiday? What a ridiculous proposition.
Re:Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a persona... by eachro on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @03:16PM (#16161977)
I similarly have no real intention to drive for my own sake or own a car, but since I do have a license I can be called on to do things for friends and family - moving/dropping or picking someone up at the airport/getting grocerties/etc. I think the added utility is a net good(well certainly for my loved ones if not myself).