For many people, getting rid of their car and using ride sharing services seems like the future. After all, by 2030, we will “own nothing and be happy.”
Financially, this attitude would appear to make sense. The average car costs more than $700 a month to run, which is a lot, regardless of your budget. Plus, it spends most of the time not being used. In the language of financial experts, it’s a “dead” asset.
But it turns out that ride sharing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, there are some serious problems associated with it that most people still don’t know.
It Can Be Dangerous
Ridesharing services are improving the safety features on their apps all the time. But getting into an Uber or Lyft can still be dangerous. When you get into a vehicle driven by another person, there are no guarantees. They could be friendly, but they could also be dangerous.
Numerous stories appear in the news of people being abused by their ridesharing drivers. Individuals get into these newfangled cabs expecting a similar service but ultimately wind up with something quite different from what they had anticipated. Stories regularly appear in the news of people being abused or being made to do things against their will.
That’s not to mention the risk of accidents. The rise of the Uber accident lawyer is a testament to this problem. Drivers don’t always have the best skills. And many people find themselves injured when they rush from one location to another, without thinking about the impact that their behavior might have.
It Could Conflict With Your Situation
Another issue with using ride-sharing services is that it could conflict with your situation. While getting a ride might be easy in the middle of a major city any time of the day, it’s not so simple when you live a long way from the rest of civilization. You often have to find alternative means of transport. And if you don’t have a car of your own, none may be available.
As such, you’ll want to think about your situation. If ridesharing is something you use occasionally in big cities because it’s convenient, then that’s probably going to be okay, as long as you have another reliable form of transport available, like the bus or subway. However, if you live in the countryside and need a vehicle to get you around from A to B late at night, then keeping your existing vehicle is probably a good idea.
It’s Expensive
Finally, you’ll want to look into the cost of ridesharing everywhere. Intuitively, you might think that it would work out at the same cost as owning a vehicle, but that’s not what happens in practice. Instead, it is significantly more expensive because you have to pay for the driver’s time, too. (When you drive your own vehicle, that time is essentially free because it’s yours).
Putting all this together, it’s clear that ride-sharing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, at least not yet.
