Member-only story
Why We Need an Uber Economy
(if we insist on using Uber)
It seems as if I am the oddball, but when asked if I’m getting an Uber, I feel compelled to correct them: “I’m getting a taxi,” I say, perhaps too coldly, as if they’ve said something wrong. This often elicits a shrug and a puzzled look — whatever old man.
Living in San Francisco, it’s not been possible to avoid using Uber entirely. It’s not my jam. I’ve heard way too many horror stories from taxi drivers about their lost investment, the struggle of working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week just to put food on the table and eke out a living, and of the difficulty navigating a city awash in Uber and Lyft cars too often making their own rules. Taxi drivers feel like the City has abandoned them. From what I can tell, they’re right.
My problem with Uber
I’ve seen Uber (and Lyft, mostly Uber) drivers barrel the wrong way down one-way streets, suddenly stop in the road (presumably because something has just occurred to them, they’re lost, or they realize the address they’re looking for is two doors back), and leave mysterious bottles of yellow liquid on the curb (you can guess).
I know this makes me sound like a have it in for all Uber drivers. I don’t; unless they’re acting like jerks or leaving their pee in a bottle at the side of the road…
