I understand that this will impact people with limited mobility, but for the majority of travels some will learn to use one of the many, cheaper, buses (M60, Q70) connecting to LGA.

https://new.mta.info/guides/airports/laguardia/lga-to-nyc

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The true hero. People traveling are not involved and may not even be aware of it happening for many reasons, caught in the crossfire.

It's gonna go like the one a few months back.

Oh really, you think a bunch of guys aren't going to take advantage of surge rates to make a ton of money or service slows down? Lol

Scabs are pretty common occurrences. What should the workers do would you suggest?

The last time they tried a strike it didn't even impact service much at all. Clearly the workers want to make money and not strike.

I mean clearly some workers want to strike. The system is designed to stifle worker organizing, but they're still trying.

> The system is designed to stifle worker organizing

The system based on civil liberties where if someone wants to work, they can choose to, and if they don't, they are also free to choose that.

Any worker who feels they get a bad deal working for Uber or Lyft is welcome to try out whatever new industry their heart desires.

That's a funny way to say "designed to skirt labor laws and exploit people".

Between the bus lines running and the drivers who take advantage of lots of available fares, it would be surprising if that had much of an impact on those who need a ride out of LaGuardia.

Could argue the press piece is enough of an impact by the organizers standpoint. I'd think that may be true as well if it brought more drivers / others to their cause.

Uber will never provide good, stable employment. Not in NYC at least.

This will be the third strike drivers have held in the past three months in protest of Uber's legal battle against the TLC , and I would argue the media attention is diminishing returns at this point.

Also, given the two previous strikes resulted in no discernible difference in riders being able to get paired with a driver, it would be surprising if a third strike that is smaller in scope results in more drivers joining the strike.

It would be nice to see a unified front, but that surge pricing is going to be too sweet for a lot of drivers to pass up.

Don't most people take the bus anyway? At least as long as they're physically able to handle luggage (or have none)?

>It would be nice to see a unified front, but that surge pricing is going to be too sweet for a lot of drivers to pass up.

Sounds about right

Would be really interesting to see a breakdown on how folks get to the airport.

>The system is designed to stifle worker organizing

That's because the system is designed to let people work whenever/wherever they want.

It is hard to get a majority of workers on the same page when nobody has a set work schedule.

A labor strike effort would be way more effective if employee classification for ride-share drivers extended to Uber assigning specific pickup zones, dates, and hours to drivers.

An actual strike @ LaGuardia would be impactful if for instance, all riders assigned to work LaGuardia pickup that day collectively decided to strike. Then Uber would have to scramble to assign new drivers to that pickup zone, and those drivers could also strike.

Not sure how many drivers would want Uber to assign them when/where they could drive, though.

They’ll learn that a yellow cab is usually the cheaper option from LaGuardia anyway, especially on a Sunday when prices tend to surge

That's an interesting take. Personally I think we should legislate away most gig economy jobs so that we aren't forfeiting basic labor regulations in the favor of some "move fast and break stuff" tech entrepreneurs idea of what's fair.

Yeah, public transportation options are actually pretty good @ LaGuardia.

Like you said, if a family (or individual) is traveling with a lot of checked luggage, using a car service would be more convenient but if someone just has a small carry-on, it is way cheaper to just take the bus.

MTA offers half a dozen different options between LaGuardia and the city.

Cringe

If you're smart, cab is always a better choice anyway and domestic travel I ain't carrying much so public transit is the preferred mode of transportation since you'll eventually get stuck in traffic.

Plus, JFK and LaGuardia both have flights to many of the same destinations, often priced competitively against each other. I 100% consider my travel burden when picking my airport.

I feel like vehicle transport is mostly for older and disabled people, or alternately, people who don't really mind spending the extra cash on a car in the first place, which is to say, I don't think this "strike" will have much impact.

I've only ever used that bus to/from LGA and it works great.

Sure, but fully doing away with the "gig" model for rideshare companies would inevitably result in what I described, which is Uber having control of when/where drivers work.

That would make organizing labor strikes easier, but again, I'm not sure how many drivers would want dedicated shifts assigned to them by Uber.

I'm lost, do the drivers not get a cut if there is surge pricing?

I’m talking about the travelers “caught in the crossfire”

No. Well, probably not. MTA doesn't publish stats, but JFK airtrain simply don't see a lot of use.

Most American airports have transit connections (examples: SFO, OAK) see very little ridership on the transit lines.

Nor is the problem entirely American. I have been on more empty rail cars coming to and from every airport in the world than I care to count.

Cross every picket line.

Scab to support every company.

Ignore every boycott.

Organized labor is a meme.

>No. Well, probably not. MTA doesn't publish stats, but JFK airtrain simply don't see a lot of use.

Color me skeptical of your claim that admittedly isn't backed by stats.

At least anecdotally in my experience, unless I'm landing at like 11pm, anytime I've been on the Q-60, Q-70 or JFK Air Train coming from an airport, it's been a crowded. It's also rare in my experience to board an empty bus to LaGuardia when I get on in either Astoria or Jackson Heights.

Okay, since you think the JFK airtrain is crowded, JFK airtrain sees 3,439,400 passengers a year.

JFK, the airport, sees 55,175,249 passengers per year. A quick bit of math suggests that 6% of JFK passengers take the airtrain. Whether that is a lot is up to you, but JFK's traffic is overwhelmingly from people who don't use the airtrain.

London is amazing in that regard.

Is that 55 million only people arriving or departing JFK or does it include the millions of people who connect through there on their way to somewhere else?

I do agree with the logic but the 55M JFK stat may be overinflated due to including layovers

Too bad there's no rail transit to the airport...

Well boy I am now regretting booking a flight home to LGA that lands at 11:30 pm on Sunday. Fuck me, that'll show em

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It’s not a union job. Not sure how they plan on striking.

But it’s not. It was designed to be a get in work and leave system. It’s only people who decided this was their “end game” who are saying it’s unfair.

SFO's problem is the way the connection is set up. They have an "Air Train" that hits every terminal, but you have to haul over to the BART station.

They should've built it out to the Milbrae station to directly connect with CalTrain and BART and stop splitting the BART services at the end of the line. It'd also hook right up with the new HSR line as well. Super Short sighted.

Lmao, did you ever take the yellow cab? I have. Had to explain to him where my neighborhood was and the guy didn’t use GPS. No phone, nothing built into the car. It’s nightmare. There’s a reason people refuse to take them, and I learned the hard way not even 4 years ago.

Besides, how are tourists who only going to be in NY once in a decade suppose to learn? That’s just a stupid take.

The last few times I've flown into LGA the lines have been ridiculously long, so Uber/Lyft are definitely preferred. Even with the walk to the garage the traffic flow is just much faster.

I am also leaving out employees; JFK have more employees (35k) than the airtrain gets in daily passengers (22k). Call it a wash with the connections.

More money for the yellow taxis then

First off, the OP is about LaGuardia, and my OC was about the bus to LGA. You've kinda hijacked this thread to make it about the airtrain to JFK without addressing the bus to LGA.

Second off, your numbers are wrong and don't support your argument.

Your 3.5 million ridership estimate (from Wikipedia) is for 2021 and doesn't take into account the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on travel. According to the Port Authority, "AirTrain JFK handled nearly 21 million passengers in 2019."

Your argument was "JFK airtrain simply don't see a lot of use" and that airports with transit connections "see very little ridership on the transit lines." Regardless of whether ridership is 3 million or 21 millions, that's literally millions of people using transit every year, and between 25-50,000 people each day.

Comparing that number to the number of air passengers is a totally inapt comparison. For one thing, that does not take into account air passengers who use JFK as a layover, nor does it take into account how people travel. For example, a family needs to buy flight tickets for children who can ride the MTA for free. Further, not everyone who flies in and out of JFK is coming to or leaving NYC; people from Long Island are probably less likely to use the airtrain, especially if they don't live near the LIRR.

In any event, comparing transit ridership to air passengers would, at most, support a different argument: that transit isn't the primary means of transportation for air passengers, not that it isn't a popular mode.

Sounds a lot like the argument that people use against minimum wage: "McDonald's isn't a real job, it's just for kids in high school"

I disagree with that fundamentally. All jobs should provide security for an adult if they wish to do it long-term. Otherwise you're building economies on top of exploiting workers who can't get better jobs, whether it's due to age, education, or simply where they were born. Expecting that there will be an infinite supply of people that can't do better is a really bad bet and ends up backfiring on countries that don't adjust (see Japan).

Only the taxi companies who drive Uber are striking. Normal drivers aren't part of the union. It's clickbait

They are striking the taxi and limousine company not normal Uber drivers. Read the article it's clickbait

You'll be able to call a ride. Only drivers employed by the third party taxi company are striking. Normal drivers will still be working they aren't represented by the union

Thank you 🙏🏻

Also you can try Revel they are similar to Uber/Lyft and only use Tesla. Every driver is employed by the company

I've heard about them! Maybe I'll give that a shot

Yeah everytime I mention to take Uber lyft over yellow cabs this sub be like "it's cheaper to take a yellow cab" I'll gladly pay an extra 3-$4 if it means not dealing with cabs driver saying "their machine is down, meter is down, or refusing to drive outside manhattan"

Is that only paid pax or everyone? Because that could make for a 50% increase by my estimate.

Yes…that’s the point of a strike?

Workers: we want more money

Company: you aren’t that important

Workers: ok we won’t work to show you how important we are

Smoothbrains: you’re inconveniencing me! 😭

Workers: we want more money Company: you aren’t important Workers: we’ll strike for a day and you lose millions! Company: a drop in a bucket in the billions we make Random people: fuck us, right? I mean, you could pick us up, charge cash, and not share it with Lyft/Uber or whatever. Workers: no, fuck you in particular just because you didn’t know we were striking.

Unless the apps shut down I don't think any kind of protests like this will ever go that noticed by the public. There's close to 100,000 FHVs in the city right now... unless you had a concerted effort, for every driver protesting I suspect there's 10 more to take their place and take advantage of the situation. Plus cabs of course. Uber and Lyft are evil so I'm not bashing protestors but their battle is a pretty big uphill

In the OP's defense, Uber was literally based on ignoring regulation and laws to get into markets and then was even banned from several cities for such violations. It is still being debating in courts in various jurisdictions whether Uber is a "gig" economy with little to no responsibilities to workers, or whether the drivers are employees. Uber does crazy shilling and lobbying to do everything possible to avoid labor regulations.

> All jobs should provide security for an adult if they wish to do it long-term.

All jobs, yes, but all companies within a sector? There are ways to make a career out of driving, like getting a truck diver's license, but Uber itself is explicitly not for people to be doing long term.

Im not a cab driver and I also want to make money and not strike

Yeah, cab is usually pretty quick - unless it's not. Had an extra long line one time and was freezing and another time during the renovation they made us walk to timbuktu. That was pre-covid, though. The new terminal is nicer in that regard.

The word for that is scab

Lol yellow cabs in this city made the bed they’re sleeping in. The cars and drivers suck and we’re unapologetic about it until something came along to threaten them. I’m not a fan of Uber, but I’m not crying for these assholes either.

I was quoted $100 from lga to midtown last time I flew in. Took the Q70 to the subway and got there in the same amount of time for $2.75 lolol

This is a win situation for yellow cabs

Thank you

>They are striking the taxi and limousine company not normal Uber drivers.

The organizer of this strike, New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), is a labor union.

It isn't a company that directly employs any drivers.

Not sure why you have posts referring to it as a third party taxi company.

If you're smart and traveling light, just take public transportation out of LaGuardia.

Way cheaper than a cab or rideshare, and there are more transit options than people would think.

Blows my mind their is not a train that goes to LGA even it could possibly happen.

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“Scabs”…. Ah yes let’s dehumanize people who also need to work to earn money to feed their family.

Man that's insane I was flying for worn Sept oct 22, was 45 bucks each way to midtown

Dynamic pricing has ruined everything

There should be a law that if you raise the price due to short term demand spike you can't lower it . So you have some consequence of playing the game

When I watch airfares, they'll go up 2-3x for a few days to a week.. then drop back down to baseline. It's a scam to just try to catch a few higher payers etc

There's no back check to stop them from trying higher prices for everything then slashing it

It’s literally the term…. Sure it’s not a union but still fits for folks working in the face of a strike or walk out. But you’re right in sure my words are the real harmful thing happening to those folks. It’s calling people scabs that causes poverty

The actual term is a Strikebreaker.... My point is if you care about the idea of a union more than people actually supporting their own lives. "support this cause because it matches my ideologies, fuck your ability to actually work"- you

That’s not at all what I said….