this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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As a disabled dude, let's have both. I can't make the short trip to my nearby bus stop, this would be taxes that I would never benefit from. But personal cars or services like these, I can make it down my driveway.
It blows my mind how many people, when talking about transportation, just completely forget that not totally-capable people exist. I guess we are all supposed to stay in one place and never go anywhere due to a physical disability.
I'll happily vote for taxes to enhance public transport, if everyone votes to keep services like these also improving and growing, especially in areas where municipal services are lacking or completely unavailable. Uber and Lyft were my only access to restaurants and groceries for a time. Shit gets expensive, but it's better than literally having to beg friends to get my groceries every week.
Just don't forget about those who can't enjoy the infrastructure.
Does your city not have a service where a small bus goes to your door? Here in Seattle you book a ride to where you need to go the day before and they come and pick you up. Heck, the small town I grew up in (2500 people) in the middle of nowhere had a similar service.
My current one does, but only goes to city limits, which isn't very useful (my doctors and such, for example, are a city over). My prior one, you had to live within half a mile of a traditional bus stop. I was just out of the 'service range', at like 0.65ish miles away.
That sucks. The service here is done by the county so it's pretty easy to get where you need to go. Or if you do not feel like booking a day in advance, they also have shuttle service to the light rail although that is less geared towards people with disabilities so it might not work for everyone.
Hopefully your region gets their heads out of their asses and starts providing basic services for people who need it.
I live in Oklahoma where they give two shits for public transportation and we have that service. I see the small bus in my small town taking people to Tulsa.
there were legal taxis before uber, uber or self driving cars don't really change anything in that regard
Uber changed things a lot. Uber lets you easily request the ride and track the driver instead of calling for a cab then calling back 45 minutes later to find out where they are and find out they never sent anyone.
technology changed things a lot, not uber. i don't really have detailed knowledge of us market, but where i am normal taxi services are using them as well, that's not really something created by uber. the only innovation uber brought to the field is that the technology allowed them to organize taxi service in really shady way (aka "the gig economy")
Taxis are expensive away from a metro area (or 'we don't go that far' etc), unfortunately, and trying to travel a short distance made them even less economical. U/L was the best way that I could get around without massively tanking my bank account, and still finances were a death sentence in that living situation (living on $600ish a month - housing, utilities, food, medications... - was a recipe for disaster; such is life).
The idea is to improve them for future use, of course they aren't a current drop-in we're-done replacement.
ok, i don't really have detailed knowledge of situation in us, so it that works for you and your budget, i am gonna believe you.
During COVID lockdowns, when lots of people had to work from home, people who couldn't work from home were all talking about how much faster it was to get to work and there was hardly any traffic on the roads.
Even if public transport doesn't benefit someone directly, getting a bunch of other people off the road still will.
Yeah, definitely. But the idea that 'only if it benefits me' really irked me, like 'why can't everyone just take public transportation' like it's just easy-peasy for everyone, guaranteed.
It's was heaven, it was like driving 20 years ago. I was delivering covid samples.
I understand you can't access it as it is now, but ideally we'd have systemic change that would allow you to access public transport. I don't know what your handicap is, but (other than immune system issues) I don't see what could be wrong that is impossible for public transport to be built to allow for. Sure, you have to get to it, but that could be made a lot easier if we weren't in a system designed for cars where everything is a million miles away.
I could be totally wrong. I have no idea of anything about you. I just would prefer a system that helps everyone, which these cars won't. In particular, impoverished people are going to be even more fucked if we start accepting this as an option for handling disabilities. It doesn't seem like a good idea.
I turn 31 next month; I'm a stroke 'survivor' (kill me) who completely lost the fine motor control of my right arm, hand, leg, foot, toes/fingers, a quarter of my vision in both eyes, ~90% of my nerve response on my right side of my entire body, as well as a few other things. Literally getting down the road to the bus stop 1/8 miles away would take 20 minutes, be immensely difficult and tiring, my pulse would be 130+ the whole time and say if I'm going to go to a store and buy something, I can't because my one operable hand is holding my cane to keep me stable. I tried, so fucking hard, to continue 'normal' life. I despise what has happened to me and the fact that I will never, ever be whole again makes me regret calling help when I realized what was occurring. I live every day in hell, in a prison created by my own stupid body, and it will be like this until my premature death.
It's the hardest thing in the world to just get to the transportation. I hate that I'm saying it, but it's absolutely true :(
I'm not saying it's the best answer - fuck, I'm trying to get back to driving, it has always been a huge part of me, my happiness, my enjoyment of life - but at least it can help people like me until something better comes along.
I'm sorry you ended up in a situation that no one should have to deal with.
You say you liked driving. Do you or any friends have access to VR equipment? I bet you could do some driving in that and at least get part of the experience you miss. It won't be the same, but it'll at least be a part of it.
A couple, but they aren't local; I've used a Google Daydream that I own, hooked to my computer via a program (name escapes me atm, icon was a cat I think). Though the daydream with glasses on is, uh, undesirable you could say.
I play games on pc/kb+mouse like Forza, BeamNG, older NFS games (nostalgia), etc and I've also been able to mostly play games like Halo or Payday by using a mouse with additional side buttons, making the mouse the primary input (wasd via mouse is interesting). I plan on picking up a wheel/pedals soon, just financial obligations has me waiting on that.
Between getting my license and the stroke, I put an average of 30k miles on vehicles per year. Driving is an escape for me (more life bs I won't bore you with) and it's just so freeing. Plus I love to explore, so they go hand in hand.
Yes, this is an underappreciated angle. Ridesharing bridges the gap for many people excluded by other forms of transit. My mom has limited mobility and ridesharing has really helped her.