Slashdot Mirror


Uber, Lyft, Zipcar Offer Free Or Discounted Rides To Polls On Election Day (consumerist.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Consumerist: Lyft, Uber, Zipcar, and Maven have unveiled a variety of discounts and promotions aimed at enabling voters to get to the polls on Tuesday. The ride-hailing service [Uber] has teamed up with Google to create an in-app feature that aims to assist voters in locating their poling place and then getting there. "Given the important decision people around the country will make on November 8th, we wanted to make getting to and from your polling place easier than ever," the company notes in a blog post on the feature. Uber will be promoting the offer throughout Election Day with reminder alerts to users. Select Lyft users will receive 45% off their Election Day trip to the polls, The Verge reports, noting that getting back from your polling place will cost full price. The company said it would send emails Sunday night to customers in eligible areas, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, NC, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans, Nashville, New York City and New Jersey, Orange County, CA, Philadelphia, Portland, OR, Phoenix, Raleigh, NC, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. If you're determined to drive yourself to the polls, but don't have a car, Zipcar is offering members an alternative: a free rental. The service will make more than 7,000 cars available for free between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday. During that time, members of the service can reserve a free car through the company's app or website. Maven -- the ride-sharing business from General Motors -- will offer riders $5 off all day, a spokesperson tells The Detroit Free press.

7 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Who gets the discounts? by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Select users will receive 45% off their Election Day trip to the polls

    The ones in the demographics likely to vote for the right candidate?

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  2. Biased choice of cities? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is it me, or does that list look like highly Democratic leaning cities? This smells more of a get out the Democrat vote effort than any sort of noble cause to just increase voter turnout overall.

  3. Bias by manu0601 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let me guess: the eligible areas have been selected because a higher voter turnout there favors a given candidate over the other one?

  4. Number 1 search by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let me guess the number one map search will be, the location of polling stations relative to where they actually want to go ;D.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  5. Re: Free Rides! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Horseshit, it's a taxi service, look it up in a dictionary. You're not sharing anything, they call you, you show up, they get in, you drive them where they want to go, they pay you. Taxi.

  6. Re:This is a blatant violation of federal law. by demonlapin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given that there are all manner of free "go vote" shuttles provided every election season, I'm pretty sure that giving someone a ride straight to or from the polling place isn't a violation of that law.

  7. Re:Only D strongholds! by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Well, to be fair, just about any big city is a Democrat stronghold. So, yeah, I guess? Not too surprising, as it seems like many tech millionaires lean to the left.

    You should see who my neighbors in Seattle keep electing. It's pretty entertaining to see left-leaning Democrats on the city council being berated by hard-core Socialists also on the council for not being liberal enough. Did you know they actually spend city money to paint crosswalks in rainbow colors? Hooray, right?! Yet a lot of Seattleites still can't get decent internet, largely because of local laws, bureaucracy, and corporate foot-dragging. Seriously, in Seattle. Rather entertaining to watch from a slight distance, so long as I don't have to actually live in the city itself!

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.