Lyft and UBER in Portland and surrounding areas (Manchester, Franklin: 2014, apartment)

[Rhapsodie2014]

Is Lyft and UBER services happening in Portland and surrounding area.....if not are these services needed?

[fvansan]

Mainers have cars and usually only the poor or elderly use a taxi. Get a car, you will need it there.

[jeremywolf81]

Yeah, Maine (even right in Portland) isn't really a taxi state at all. I'm still young and in the young Old Port every weekend crowd and the ONLY time I can think of someone ever using a taxi was when they wanted to get to the airport and figured it would be cheaper to leave their car at their apartment than in the parking garage while they were away.

[atrixwolfe]

Yes it actually is. I know a guy who is an uber driver. He says he's not getting many calls...but does get the occasional one. There are a number of people who live in Portland with out a car, and I've had the occasion to use a taxi for airport etc. Next time I'm using uber.

[Rhapsodie2014]

Originally Posted by atrixwolfe

Yes it actually is. I know a guy who is an uber driver. He says he's not getting many calls...but does get the occasional one. There are a number of people who live in Portland with out a car, and I've had the occasion to use a taxi for airport etc. Next time I'm using uber.

ou Un


Maybe will take a while to catch on......I would assume cities with large populations would have more need (like Boston etc)......I think young univer sity students would be inclined to use. I was just wondering...

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by Rhapsodie2014

Maybe will take a while to catch on......I would assume cities with large populations would have more need (like Boston etc)......I think young univer sity students would be inclined to use. I was just wondering...

Here's a link: https://www.uber.com/cities/portland-me

It's really all over now (and it's been in Portland for a while). They used to be located in just larger and mid-size cities, now they're covering entire regions ("New Hampshire" is an Uber region covering an area from Portsmouth to Manchester).

The beauty of Uber is that it really lets the market define itself. If there's demand, the service will grow. If there isn't, it won't. My guess is that in Portland, there's a very small market for it the occasional airport run and maybe a drunk shuttle or two is about what you're going to see. Portland's pretty autocentric. There are some people who live in town without cars, but Portland's physically so small that everything in "Urban" Portland is a pretty quick walk away from everything else. It also doesn't make much sense for a driver to accept a ride request from someone at, say, the intersection of Franklin and Middle who wants to go to Congress and State (one extreme end of central Portland to the other). That's maybe a $5 fare- 20% of which goes to Uber. The only way it really makes sense is if there's enough demand to make it so the driver gets another request as soon as he/she drops off the previous fare. In a city like Portland that's not really much of a possibility. So your Uber drivers are likely going to be regular folks driving around and accepting a request only when it's convenient for them. Airport runs will likely be the big ones. I doubt you'll find anyone making a profession off of Uber the way they do in major cities. It doesn't help Uber that it's really not hard to get a cab in Portland anyway to begin with.

I use Uber regularly down here. I can't picture using it in Portland except for maybe an airport run. I lived within walking distance of everything.

[Rhapsodie2014]

Thanks Irfox for your feedback.....probably not much difference using UBER than a cab (cost wise), as they and Lyft were supposed to be an alternative to the very expensive cabs.....I hear UBER has increased fees but have not looked into.....I also imagine UBER and Lyft are doing well in Boston??