Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

David Cantrell wrote:
On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 02:48:12PM -0000, Recliner wrote:
David Cantrell wrote:
On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 01:26:03PM +0100, Recliner wrote:
One obvious reason: it's more expensive
IME Uber is cheaper than a local minicab company by around 25%.
especially at 'surge' times.
OK, I'll grant you that. They're rare though.
Lots of people say otherwise.

My own journey history says otherwise, but that, of course, isn't a
particularly valid survey :-) But then, nor is people bitching about it.

Looking through the details of the few journeys I've made where surge
pricing was in effect, and where I have a rough idea of how much a
non-Uber cab would cost - surge pricing only appears to bring the cost
up to that of a non-Uber cab most of the time.

- Second reason: it's less likely to have cars available locally in
residential areas (just like black cabs).

Wrong. There are four, right now, within 500 yards of my flat.

I suspect you're near the sort of traffic magnet that attracts Uber
drivers. They don't otherwise hang around residential areas.

I'd love to know what traffic magnet there is near CR7 8JH during the
middle of a working day.

Thornton Heath station, a Tesco superstore, a shopping parade with
restaurants, etc.
And, yes, right now an UberX car is shown as 3 mins away.




- Third reason: you have to have a smart phone, with a signal/wi-fi
access (which is why very few blind people will have an Uber account).
The blind people I know actually find a smart phone more useful than a
dumb phone.
And how exactly do they operate the Uber app if they can't see the screen?

I take it that you're not familiar with modern smart phones.

I've never needed to enable any sort of voiceover system with mine.


They'd operate it the same way they'd operate any other app. At least in
Apple-land, the Uber app has "Voiceover" enabled. It is apparently fully
accessible for blind people. See eg
http://www.applevis.com/forum/access...sible-are-they

And please note that most "blind" people aren't completely blind. The
term covers all kinds of serious visual impairments. Many moons ago this
thread was whining about guide dogs. You don't have to have absolutely
no sight at all to have a guide dog.

Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

"Recliner" wrote in message
...
wrote:
On 25.08.16 12:54, David Cantrell wrote:
On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 01:51:21PM +0000, d wrote:
On Wed, 24 Aug 2016 13:55:08 +0100
David Cantrell wrote:
- Third reason: you have to have a smart phone, with a signal/wi-fi
access (which is why very few blind people will have an Uber
account).
The blind people I know actually find a smart phone more useful than a
dumb phone.
Oh really? And how exactly do they operate a touchscreen, press it
randomly
and hope for the best?

Modern smartphones have all kinds of accessibility Stuff. In Apple-land
the bit for blind people is called VoiceOver.

- Fourth reason: you have to have an Uber account before you can use
it, and Uber's app installed on your smart phone.
Well duh. And how long does it take to install and set up? Not very
long
at all. It certainly takes less time than it does to find a local
minicab office if you don't know the area.
The question is - why are you supporting this silicon valley shark
instead of
local businesses?

I use Uber because the local businesses that they compete with, in this
case, are ****.

They are starting driverless taxi service in Singapore as of Thursday,
BTW.


And just for Mr Recliner, advanced booking in London

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37184648

tim

Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

"Recliner" wrote in message
...
David Cantrell wrote:
On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 02:48:12PM -0000, Recliner wrote:
David Cantrell wrote:
On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 01:26:03PM +0100, Recliner wrote:
One obvious reason: it's more expensive
IME Uber is cheaper than a local minicab company by around 25%.
especially at 'surge' times.
OK, I'll grant you that. They're rare though.
Lots of people say otherwise.

My own journey history says otherwise, but that, of course, isn't a
particularly valid survey :-) But then, nor is people bitching about it.

Looking through the details of the few journeys I've made where surge
pricing was in effect, and where I have a rough idea of how much a
non-Uber cab would cost - surge pricing only appears to bring the cost
up to that of a non-Uber cab most of the time.

- Second reason: it's less likely to have cars available locally in
residential areas (just like black cabs).

Wrong. There are four, right now, within 500 yards of my flat.

I suspect you're near the sort of traffic magnet that attracts Uber
drivers. They don't otherwise hang around residential areas.

I'd love to know what traffic magnet there is near CR7 8JH during the
middle of a working day.

Thornton Heath station, a Tesco superstore, a shopping parade with
restaurants, etc.

That's hardly a unique profile for suburban London

tim

Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

tim... wrote:

"Recliner" wrote in message
...
wrote:
On 25.08.16 12:54, David Cantrell wrote:
On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 01:51:21PM +0000, d wrote:
On Wed, 24 Aug 2016 13:55:08 +0100
David Cantrell wrote:
- Third reason: you have to have a smart phone, with a signal/wi-fi
access (which is why very few blind people will have an Uber
account).
The blind people I know actually find a smart phone more useful than a
dumb phone.
Oh really? And how exactly do they operate a touchscreen, press it
randomly
and hope for the best?

Modern smartphones have all kinds of accessibility Stuff. In Apple-land
the bit for blind people is called VoiceOver.

- Fourth reason: you have to have an Uber account before you can use
it, and Uber's app installed on your smart phone.
Well duh. And how long does it take to install and set up? Not very
long
at all. It certainly takes less time than it does to find a local
minicab office if you don't know the area.
The question is - why are you supporting this silicon valley shark
instead of
local businesses?

I use Uber because the local businesses that they compete with, in this
case, are ****.

They are starting driverless taxi service in Singapore as of Thursday,
BTW.


And just for Mr Recliner, advanced booking in London

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37184648

Thanks, I hadn't spotted that.

Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

On 25/08/2016 15:35, Recliner wrote:
tim... wrote:
And just for Mr Recliner, advanced booking in London

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37184648

Thanks, I hadn't spotted that.

Although one thing I noticed from the publicity is that "Surge may
apply" - so you book your cab a week in advance to go to the airport and
have no idea how much it might cost you!

Ouch!

Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

Someone Somewhere wrote:
On 25/08/2016 15:35, Recliner wrote:
tim... wrote:
And just for Mr Recliner, advanced booking in London

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37184648

Thanks, I hadn't spotted that.

Although one thing I noticed from the publicity is that "Surge may
apply" - so you book your cab a week in advance to go to the airport and
have no idea how much it might cost you!

Ouch!

Yeah, I'd still prefer my local minicab firm.

Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 14:15:20 on Thu, 25 Aug 2016, Recliner
remarked:

Modern smartphones have all kinds of accessibility Stuff. In Apple-land
the bit for blind people is called VoiceOver.

Apparently you tap on the screen and it tells you whats there. Call me old
fashioned but I'm struggling to see how thats easier to use than physical
buttons that are always in the same place and easily found by touch. Seems
to me they'll be constantly prodding the screen to find the correct piece of
information and if any app presents some information as a picture or bitmap
then I suspect its screwed.

And I still fail to understand how it will work with a graphical app.

Perhaps you should try it? Got any rich friends with an iPhone you could
borrow for a couple of hours??
--
Roland Perry

Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-sept
ember.org, at 14:15:20 on Thu, 25 Aug 2016, Recliner
remarked:

Modern smartphones have all kinds of accessibility Stuff. In Apple-land
the bit for blind people is called VoiceOver.

Apparently you tap on the screen and it tells you whats there. Call me old
fashioned but I'm struggling to see how thats easier to use than physical
buttons that are always in the same place and easily found by touch. Seems
to me they'll be constantly prodding the screen to find the correct piece of
information and if any app presents some information as a picture or bitmap
then I suspect its screwed.

And I still fail to understand how it will work with a graphical app.

Perhaps you should try it? Got any rich friends with an iPhone you could
borrow for a couple of hours??

It would probably work on one of my iPads. And maybe there's an Android
equivalent or two; there usually are. But as it's of no relevance to me, I
don't think I'll bother.

Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 16:17:45 on Thu, 25 Aug 2016, Recliner
remarked:

And I still fail to understand how it will work with a graphical app.

Perhaps you should try it? Got any rich friends with an iPhone you could
borrow for a couple of hours??

It would probably work on one of my iPads. And maybe there's an Android
equivalent or two; there usually are. But as it's of no relevance to me, I
don't think I'll bother.

If you are happy to fail to understand, then don't bleat about it here.
--
Roland Perry

Sadiq Khan and TfL on taxis and minicabs
 

Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-sept
ember.org, at 16:17:45 on Thu, 25 Aug 2016, Recliner
remarked:

And I still fail to understand how it will work with a graphical app.

Perhaps you should try it? Got any rich friends with an iPhone you could
borrow for a couple of hours??

It would probably work on one of my iPads. And maybe there's an Android
equivalent or two; there usually are. But as it's of no relevance to me, I
don't think I'll bother.

If you are happy to fail to understand, then don't bleat about it here.

Looks really easy for a blind person, doesn't it:

https://help.uber.com/h/902465fa-f22...4-59940446e792