<story><title>Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare</title><url>https://qz.com/1308173/uber-is-experimenting-with-letting-riders-wait-longer-for-a-cheaper-fare/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maerF0x0</author><text>I just wanted to drop a note to say I think Uber is doing a good job, all things considered. Many public transit companies have been around for decades and haven&amp;#x27;t figured out how to scale up to the kind of service Uber is providing. 4B rides in 2017 is pretty amazing.&lt;p&gt;If I understand the math correctly, BART claims about 126 million rides (2015) and cost $906M (~$7 a ride, comparable to some uber pool fares)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Tiktaalik</author><text>&amp;gt;Many public transit companies have been around for decades and haven&amp;#x27;t figured out how to scale up to the kind of service Uber is providing&lt;p&gt;This is because these are publicly funded organizations that are starved of funds for political reasons.&lt;p&gt;Public transit works well where it&amp;#x27;s funded well. It&amp;#x27;s a political problem, not a technology problem.</text></comment>
<story><title>Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare</title><url>https://qz.com/1308173/uber-is-experimenting-with-letting-riders-wait-longer-for-a-cheaper-fare/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maerF0x0</author><text>I just wanted to drop a note to say I think Uber is doing a good job, all things considered. Many public transit companies have been around for decades and haven&amp;#x27;t figured out how to scale up to the kind of service Uber is providing. 4B rides in 2017 is pretty amazing.&lt;p&gt;If I understand the math correctly, BART claims about 126 million rides (2015) and cost $906M (~$7 a ride, comparable to some uber pool fares)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anon84598</author><text>Just to totally nitpick your last point, it&amp;#x27;s worth noting that the BART cost probably includes the entire infrastructure maintenance cost whereas Uber essentially has infrastructure subsidized (i.e., they don&amp;#x27;t need to pay for maintenance of the roads their cars drive on etc.) so a true comparison of efficiency would result in Uber &amp;quot;costing&amp;quot; more than that.</text></comment>