The Economics of UberX in NYC

Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by pbreit on Monday November 03, 2014 @09:12PM (#8554835)

This guy's whole article falls apart based on one terrible assumption: that Uberx behaviors are similar to taxis. There are a whole host of reasons why this is not the case. Taxis are more likely to hang out in dense, Manhattan areas contributing to short and slow rides. Riders would much prefer to take an Uberx to the airport than a taxi. Surge pricing. Etc.

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by untog on Monday November 03, 2014 @09:15PM (#8554839)

Why would people be more inclined to take an UberX to the airport than a taxi? The taxi has a flat fare. And from the map view I've seen using Uber, UberX's absolutely do hang around in dense Manhattan areas.

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by albertwang on Monday November 03, 2014 @10:45PM (#8555058)

I live in Manhattan and I now prefer to take Uber/Lyft to the airport whenever there's no surge pricing. Taxis are _supposed_ to have flat pricing but I've never found that to be the case: given all the bridge/tunnel tolls, baggage fees, and airport taxes, I'm consistently charged anywhere from $80-$120 one-way from Midtown Manhattan to LGA (+tip). In comparison, Uber uses GPS tracking to automatically figure out which tolls to tack on, and it costs me $63.

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by harryh on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @12:14AM (#8555236)

NYC Taxis have a flat fare to JFK. This does not apply to LGA.

That being said I have no fucking clue how you're spending $80 or more on that fare. Even if you're coming from the far west wide and sitting in traffic forever you shouldn't be cracking $50.

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by atlbeer on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @08:48AM (#8556436)

You are being taking for a ride, literally. Midtown to LGA is ~$30-$40 before tip. And flat rates are JFK only.

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by travisp on Monday November 03, 2014 @09:43PM (#8554908)

The flat fare is only from JFK to Manhattan(source: http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/passenger/taxicab_rate.shtm...), not to JFK, or to/from LGA, and not to the other boroughs. UberX also comes to my apartment, while a taxi rarely does, and the drivers are typically more patient with me strapping my son's car seat in (or providing one in the case of Uber Family) and even helpful.

As someone who does not live in Manhattan, I can say that I'm far more likely to be able to get an Uber than a taxi outside of Manhattan (although it's a little better now with the Green cabs). And, I've never had an Uber driver keep their doors locked and speed away at rush hour when I told them I was going to Brooklyn. My utilization of taxis in NYC is entirely different than my utilization of UberX.

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by harryh on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @12:17AM (#8555242)

"For trips between (to and from) Manhattan and JFK International Airport, the flat fare is $52.00"

TO AND FROM

I know reading is hard.

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by travisp on Thursday November 06, 2014 @09:46PM (#8571001)

I'm sorry that I missed that phrase. I don't have experience going to/from the one of three NY area airports that has flat taxi fares because I live in Brooklyn, not Manhattan (and Brooklyn applies to the analysis of Uber in NYC). There is definitely no need to be unkind to me about it; I'm sure you've misread something at least once.

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by mason55 on Monday November 03, 2014 @09:37PM (#8554887)

> Why would people be more inclined to take an UberX to the airport than a taxi?

In the outer boroughs there frequently ARE no taxis. So you have a bunch of Uber rides that used to be car service rides which distort the numbers.

> The taxi has a flat fare.

Only from JFK to Manhattan

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by harryh on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @12:11AM (#8555225)

How big are these differences? Do you have estimates of some kind? How does that change the bottom line on the math he's done? Without putting numbers to your assertion I'm not sure how valuable it is.

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Re:The Economics of UberX in NYC by glenra on Thursday November 06, 2014 @04:56PM (#8570051)

The obvious way to estimate the difference would be to assume Uber isn't actually lying about the average fare/trip length/speed. The "math he's done" involved arbitrarily cutting the average fare in half based on a guess that Uber is lying somehow to juke the stats. My guess would be that they're not and the better numbers they get are merely the result of differences between how people use Uber and how they use cabs.

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