Random thoughts from behind the wheel from the last few months.
> Ever since the American "excursion" into Iran, gas prices have spiked and I've kind of been on alert as to what it means to the hustle. What I'm seeing so far is more aggressive panhandling. My move historically has been to give a slow "No" head shake on approach, because it's a volume business for them, and I don't want to give false hope. As you move from daylight to late night (my usual shift), the sightings lessen.
What seems to be happening now is the desperation is rising, so you see them in more places and for longer periods of time. You also, if it's late enough, get folks walking straight in front of your car, gesticulating more wildly, and just getting more intimidating.
My car is modest, a decade old, with some light cosmetic damage from a past deer strike, and prominent rideshare platform signage. I am not now, nor have ever been, a picture of rolling consumption and affluence. That no longer matters, because the margins for everyone on the road have been cut. As always, it impacts those with the least first.
> When costs for drivers rise, fewer people do it. My car gets 45 miles per gallon, so I'm much better off than most on this, but I'm still tempted to call it a day sooner when things get slow. So I have to think that surge prices are up (my per hour gross rates are higher, my net is the same), and wait times for passengers are longer. This hasn't turned into direct hostility from passengers to my knowledge, but I still insist on starting the ride with amenities that most drivers do not offer, so maybe that experience isn't the same for others.
> If you are of a certain age, you might remembr the movie version of the Who's rock opera "Tommy", in which the central character withdraws following a childhood trauma, and does not seem to see, hear or speak. Eventually he breaks out of this and becomes a religious figure who uses his past experience with his followers, with the lyric "Put on your earphones, put on your eye shades, you know where to put the cork."
And when passengers, many of them single travelers and younger, enter my car with headphones on and a prayerful pose to their omnipresent phone, all I can think is... I need to put some corks in the seatbacks.
Passengers of the world, I get it. You've had a day, and maybe this time in the car is the only respite you're going to get. You may be catching up to things you have had to let slide for entirely too long. Life is unseemly and many drivers are not going to say things you want to hear, and part of you is actively looking forward to self-driving cars that will seem less awkward and more safe.
But the awkwardness you are feeling from basic human interactions will not dissipate with even fewer of them, and a society where a spiraling number of people aren't supporting themselves... is going to be more awkward still.
So. Interact with the driver. Briefly, if you like. Confirm the identity and destination. Maybe engage in a little small talk, or at the very least, apologize for your upcoming isolation. Let's all treat each other the way we'd like to be treated, instead of a nuisance to be endured. It's a better ride and world, I promise.
> Speaking of driver interactions... there's an increasing amount of survelliance happening with the platforms pushing for dash cams, and presumptive recording of the ride's audio by either the driver or passenger's phone. I've had false accusations and platform deactivations in the past, which has caused fiscal harm, so I get it.
But I can't help but think that the trade off isn't worth it. That's computing power run amok (so, higher electicity and water bills for everyone, along with climate change consequences) with a side of constant state survalliance, and it's a when, not an if, for a gross misuse of that data to occur. And that's not even my biggest problem with it.
I'm an adult. In a country where free speech is supposed to be a core human right. And when you decide to chill it by pre-emptively recording it because you have decided that I am guilty until never proven innocent by dint of my choice of hustle, I'm going to... say only sanitized things, and very few of them, because that's the world you've created.
So those amenities? Not discussed. Restaurant reviews? Nope. Tips that might save you time and money in your next ride? Not on record. Chance that your rating is going to get a star or two taken away because I don't enjoy the world you are helping to enable? (Silence.)
> Finally, this. There are advantages to society, specifically known as a "network effect", when people are more or less on the same schedule. If most people don't have the weekend off, then weekends lose their utility, because you can't plan events that will be as well-attended. If most people have common songs in their lives, we can all sing along to them at ball games. If jokes reference events that everyone has heard of, they land with more people. And so on.
And when that effect is weakened, something is lost.
I'd point out how this impact rideshare, but, well, you can just read the earlier points and connect the dots, yes?
