Just get an Uber!

[AlwaysCountYourPennies]

I see this suggested on so many threads. Do people not realise that Uber are not available in vast areas of the country?

Good for Babs. She has a monopoly!

Like many, we also use "Uber" as synonymous with "microwave". Eg "just uber it with some cheese".

Is this really something to get worked up about?

🤣

I live outside a village, 15 minutes from the nearest town, in the north, and we have 24 hour taxis, last train/bus around 11.30pm, takeaways until 1am. I didn't realise how unusual that was until I travelled round the uk a bit more in my 20s and was quite shocked when I ordered a taxi somewhere and was told it would be 50 minutes. I said 'oh sorry, I meant now' 😂and was told 'the' taxi driver was busy on the school run.

I mean a lot of Londoners do understand what it is like to live with poor services (I am a Londoner who grew up in a small village with two buses a day and a half hour ealk to the station) - it's why we live in London.

There is a reason why you can get a 4 bed house with a garden in many country villages for the price of a small London flat. We sacrifice space for convenience, many country dwellers do the opposite.

Isn't that just part of interacting on a forum where people come from different places with different assumptions?

It definitely happens both ways - I live in London and we don't have a car, even when you specify that, the number of posters who will comment assuming that you have a car is high, I don't take offence.

I was once told on here 'to just get a taxi' for a 120 mile round trip.

Some folk on mumsnet don't live in the real world

London - centric and yet people are forever saying "can't you just put it in the garage" or even outhouse! Likewise off street parking, loft, playrooms, spare bedrooms.

At the grand old age of 46 on two decent incomes we've only recently reached the lofty heights of off street parking, we will never have a garage.

Or "WFH is great if you both have separate offices or a garden room!"

TBF I live in a London flat and have both a garage and off street parking (thirties blocks of flats for the win!)

To be fair, I can live without Uber, deliveroo and the rest of that stuff for the sea and the sky I can access from my doorstep. You can live really happily without takeaway deliveries.

I think this is unfair, it's just shorthand for taxi. And if you do live somewhere with very limited services, then your'll already know this. You choose to live there. Presumably your'll then plan to not do said action, or leave earlier, or arrange alternative transport days in advance, or book something else. If you choose to live somewhere with restrictions then you go do knowing how to work around it.

And by the way I don't live in London, SW of London admittedly with good choices, lots of transport and taxi choices. But many places I've been on holiday eg Dorset have limited facilities, but I'm aware of that.

What an excellent name for a taxi firm

Yes, the fact people have repeatedly refused to believe most posters on this thread is indeed infuriating.

Very, very few people on MN tell posters who say that they don’t have access to these things that they are wrong and that they must have. You get the odd poster, but then you’ll get the odd poster saying just about anything.

You get quite a few posters suggesting using these sorts of facilities (since most posters do have access to them, it’s hardly surprising they thing of them) and it’s infuriatingly common for the same suggestions to come up again and again on the same thread because so many people don’t read the thread, all the OP’s posts, or even the very first post properly. But, given how many posters there are on MN, only a very tiny percentage will insist after being told otherwise that someone must have access.

You’re right, it’s really only one or two of you. I’m bored of this odd discussion, I’m unsure why you as an urban dweller with your Uber and takeaway on tap everywhere you’ve lived think the rest of us without are in a tiny minority. I’ve explained your government stats make no sense as I’m in your 85% they consider urban but without the prawn crackers and fried rice, nor does it look urban here. Others have also said the same but each time you come back with more examples of your life that ‘prove’ every other poster wrong. I’m unsure why you’re so invested in something that clearly isn’t an issue to you. Well it is getting late so I’m off to put my stereotypical tractor to bed, best get to sleep soon as I’ll be up early to milk the cows then I’ll catch the the once weekly bus to market to sell my home grown potatoes. I’m out.

Maybe you’re bored because you’re misrepresenting or misunderstanding the assertions I’ve made.

I have not said 85% of people have access. I’ve only said a majority of people (which is far less than everyone in an urban area).

I have not said that I have had these sorts facilities everywhere I’ve lived. I’ve said I have lived places that don’t.

I haven’t said that any of the posters on here are saying they don’t have access when they do.

If you start reading what I have actually said, rather than what you would like me to have said so that your narrative holds (that there are these awful people telling you you’re lying), you might find there is more shared ground and understanding than conflict.

So now I’m stupid and don’t understand🙄. I understand what you’ve written which is most people have access to these services. Yet it’s been pointed out that many don’t, much more the 15% you’ve said don’t. Regardless if a minority want a moaning thread then why shouldn’t they? I’m bored because debate is a two way thing and you’ve not accepted anything I’ve said that is contrary to your experience, just contradicted my experience. As I said I’m done. Stop tagging me.

So then, don’t get an Uber (or a taxi). What’s the big deal?

I holiday in a provincial town in NZ, and even we get Uber there, so yes, probably most people do assume you can get an Uber.

But if they’re wrong, and there’s a minority who can’t, so what? I don’t get the drama.

I didn’t call you stupid. I have not said I think only 15% of the population don’t have access. I only mentioned where I have lived because you accused me of only ever having lived in an “amenity rich city” and seemed to think I based by claims on anecdote, though I hadn’t, at that point talked about my own experience.

Have your little mardy fit if that’s all you’re capable of. But stop saying I’ve said things I haven’t.

My parents live rurally, but in a massive commuter village. The bus service is finishing soon, because there are no funds to run it. No taxis. I don't drive so when I visit, I ask a family member to pick me up from the nearest station. I live in London where getting around is easy. I forget how poorly served the rest of the country is. It's utterly wrong.

Just wondering if anyone here has heard of a place called Scotland? It’s on TV sometimes…

Uber serves just two Scottish cities (micro-cities compared to London). Scotland extends 400 miles north of Edinburgh - to put that in perspective London is closer to Paris than Edinburgh is to many Scottish residents.

Anyway, getting raped in an Uber isn’t on my bucket-list.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 at the idea of being able to get a taxi spontaneously. Country bumpkin here. Several weeks notice for an airport run; a few days notice for a night out if you're lucky. Never for "now". There's a taxi company in the village, but largely busy doing rural school runs and pre bookings.

I grew up in London. We never used taxis much then either, we were 10 mins from Victoria, then 10 mins from Clapham Junction. Trains only stopped running between about 4-5 am!

Uber's while model is based on demand. If there isn't sufficient demand then they won't bother.

It generally needs areas of highly dense population to work. If you choose to live in a less densely populated area (and there are all sorts of benefits to this) then you won't get the services that rely on a dense population to be financially viable.

Public transport in my view is different as it is a public good, so it should be subsidised in rural areas.

@ComfortablyDazed

You seem to have proved my point by refusing to accept that for people outside of metropolitan areas "just get an uber" or "just get a taxi" is simply not an option.