
Austin Police Department Warns SXSW Attendees Not To Use Uber - trustfundbaby
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/08/austin-police-sxsw-uber
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devindotcom
Well it would be good if the law was such that the police _could_ encourage
it, but since it isn't, why would we expect them to?

If the law says these vehicles are operating illegally, the police are pretty
much bound to discommend them. We always knew Uber existed in a highly
regulated space, and changing the law or how it's interpreted will always take
time.

I'm also pretty sure that if the Ubers and other ride services are not in fact
operating under the law, your protections as a citizen and consumer are
limited. The police would want people to choose services where they have the
most lawful protection.

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viraptor
There's a difference though between them just putting a fine on Uber cab
someone reported or they ran across by accident, and them actively announcing
the disagreement and targeting the business. I'm sure there are many other
more interesting things they could spend their time on.

Does the police force care about Uber enough to do this? (on their own) I
don't think so. I'd rather ask who cares and has so much influence on them.

~~~
migrantgeek
My guess is that they were being asked by bloggers, journalists, etc who were
coming in for SXSW and thought it would be easier to put out an online
statement to direct people to.

I don't think this is a high priority for APD.

I don't see the big deal really. I've lived in Austin since 2005 and I've
never used a cab service here. They seem pretty useless in this city IMO.

I should also mention that I'm not a fan of Uber. I've been with friends and
coworkers using it in San Francisco and always I see 3-4 available yellow cabs
go by while we wait for our driver.

I'm in San Fran 1 week a month and when I'm by myself, I just take yellow
cabs. They seem to work OK for me.

~~~
tidon12
I wonder how much this is the impact of uber/lyft/sidecar etc though. Like
many things posted on hn, this is highly anecdotal, but when I first moved to
SF almost four years ago it was difficult to find an available cab. I often
waited 20 minutes or more on nights when I went out.

Now I have a similar experience to you as open cabs seem more available, but I
wonder how much of this is the ridesharing services siphoning off demand.

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rocky1138
$55 minimum? This is a great way to increase the amount of drunk drivers on
the road. Way to go, Austin!

~~~
cowsandmilk
You can still get a cab starting for $2.40/mile. There is a distinct
difference between a "vehicle for hire" and a cab.

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moonka
If you can find one. If you aren't on the main drag, good luck. We called
twice and waited for cabs which never showed up, and finally called a friend
of my sister to pick us up. We would have been much happier taking an uber
instead of waking up a friend if we could have.

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exelius
The lack of cabs in Austin is a normal situation; they just don't exist. There
are something like 250 licensed taxis in the city. You really can't hail them
down like in other cities either; most drivers have scheduled pickups for most
of the night.

You really need either a car or a shuttle bus for SXSW. It's just how it is in
the US outside the northeast, Chicago or San Francisco.

Also, even though the "minimum price" is $55, Uber's "surge pricing" is
requiring a $125 minimum fare.

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seanmcdirmid
They hang out at the airport and you can order one for a morning pickup.
Austin isn't that bad, its just not geared to locals or bar hoppers (but
Austin is quite walkable).

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tptacek
For what it's worth, if you didn't already know: Uber doesn't serve Austin, or
didn't just a few months ago when I was out there last. It's not like Austin
is pulling the rug out from under Uber. It's kind of irritating to me that
Uber would pretend to serve Austin during SXSW. If you're going to serve a
municipality, put your chips on the table and slug it out for real.

~~~
natrius
It is illegal for Uber to operate in Austin the way they do in other cities.
During SXSW, Uber offers free UberX (since it's illegal to charge, but giving
free rides is legit) and paid Uber Black, which probably falls under normal
limo rules.

Uber isn't doing anything wrong here. Austin's politicians are, because their
campaign funds come from the taxi lobby.

~~~
tptacek
They don't offer Uber Black outside SXSW either. They seem to be in Austin
because they want the attention of tourists, not because they want to go to
bat for the people of Austin. Correction welcome.

~~~
natrius
You're right that Uber doesn't operate in Austin outside of SXSW, but it's not
because they don't want to. The city shuts down every Uber-like service that
tries to operate here. It's bald-faced corruption.

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icelancer
That's tptacek's point, though: If Uber wants to have a presence there, they
should fight the "shut down" Austin is imposing.

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wooter
right! maybe they should "fight" it by serving people around the absurd rules
during a popular tech-related event (a space in which Austin claims to
compete) and forcing the local authority figures to put their corruption on
full display...

But its cool, I'm sure tptacek has full view of their internal strategies and
knows, for sure, that Uber hasn't tried at all to operate within Austin

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colechristensen
>But its cool, I'm sure tptacek has full view of their internal strategies and
knows, for sure, that Uber hasn't tried at all to operate within Austin

Do not say things like this. It is incredibly disrespectful.

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wooter
You're right, it wasn't the best way to put it. I was going to edit it, but
apparently I can't anymore.

However...

> If you're going to serve a municipality, put your chips on the table and
> slug it out for real.

I found this to be far more presumptuous and disrespectful.

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lolo_
We (me + colleague) are at SxSW now (over from the UK) - this is quite amazing
given the utter lack of cabs if you're anywhere resembling out-of-downtown.
Thankfully we have through an amazing friend of a friend procured the services
of a friendly cab driver who goes out of his way to help us, without which
we'd basically have to stay at our residence the whole time and not do SxSW at
all.

Yikes.

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rorlin
It's always funny how people come in from all over for SXSW and assume Austin
will be some bustling metropolis with big-city amenities. Did you not notice
"downtown" includes only a few square blocks?

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wavefunction
The unofficial city bird is the (construction) Crane, define few?

Generally that means 2-3. Is there such a thing as hypobole?

~~~
tricolon
Well, there's meiosis[0], but that's not exactly right...

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis_(figure_of_speech)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis_\(figure_of_speech\))

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sehugg
I dunno, I've been on a (authorized) shuttle at SXSW driven by a meth-head
whereupon at the end of the trip everyone was sheet-white and couldn't say a
word. Could Uber be worse?

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DanBC
Did anyone take the driver's information and report him? (Or her?)

This is one of the supposed advantages of the regulated systems - people
report dangerous drivers who then lose their ability to be drivers.

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trustfundbaby
There are actually undercover stings going on too, by the looks of things
[http://www.reddit.com/r/SXSW/comments/1zwr26/atx_welcome_to_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/SXSW/comments/1zwr26/atx_welcome_to_intractive_undercover_uber_stings/)

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javajosh
You'd think they'd do anything they could to avoid drunk driving. I hope that
if anyone gets hurt or killed during SXSW by a drunk driver the victim sues
the hell out of the APD for making it more likely there will be drunk drivers
on the road.

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tsotha
"Permitted transportation services" has kind of a Soviet ring to it.

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diakritikal
"Someone should tell the folks at the police department before they start
fining Uber drivers or scaring attendees away from using the service."

I live in the central belt of Scotland, if a taxi here in Glasgow or Edinburgh
cost a minimum of $55 there would be a civil insurrection. I'm frankly amazed
that the crux of this story is having a go at the cops and not anyone who
thinks $55 minimum for a taxi is OK.

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kevcampb
$55 isn't the minimum cost for a taxi, it's for pre booked private hire

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rjf90
Yet another example of society acclimating to disruptive technology.

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Jugurtha
Well, people aren't 6 year olds and the Police isn't their parents. The Police
saying something doesn't mean their words shouldn't be let to be gone with the
wind, whose direction is, well, south by south west.

In case you're wondering, what I said above is a tactful way to say "Fuck
off".

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driverdan
I live in Austin. The cab situation here is terrible. There aren't enough cabs
when it's busy, drivers often violate the law by refusing credit cards or
denying rides. Last night I was downtown (during SXSW) and tried to get a cab
for 45 min. The first one that stopped tried scamming me by telling me it
would be $20. I told him no way and he drove off. The second one asked where I
was going and acted like he didn't know where it was (very common numbered
street any idiot would know about) and told me he didn't want to go there.
Both violated their licenses.

The whole time I was also trying to get Uber X. Eventually I got an Uber car.
It was worth the wait to not have to ride with one of those asshole cabbies.
We _really_ need to change the laws here and crack down on these cabs.

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jessaustin
So, umm, bring a bicycle? Maybe there are some for rent? Austin isn't
particularly hilly, is it?

~~~
shiftpgdn
Austin is incredibly hilly.

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driverdan
No it isn't. SF is incredibly hilly. Austin has a few hills and not many
downtown.

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shiftpgdn
I'm guessing you state this as a person that has never been to Austin.

Travis County[1]: Highest elevation 1420ft Lowest elevation 425ft

San Francisco: Highest elevation 925 ft (282 m) Lowest elevation 0 ft (0 m)

Thanks for your baseless statement though.

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gojomo
When will APD do something about those slow, dangerous, absurd pedicabs?

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BadassFractal
Gotta love a free market.

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greatsuccess
Actually these are just regs on the driver, as a citizen I can get into any
fucking car I want on any fucking terms I want and the police have nothing to
say about it.

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thenmar
Take that, tax-and-spend liberals!

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ivanca
Most of the taxes go for weapons/military, so you could say that you're
technically reducing wars by avoiding taxes.

Or better yet, there should be a tax for stupidity in congress, that alone
would set the USA economy back on track.

