Why are the elderly so afraid of Uber/Lyft?

[Anonymous]

I started using Uber at 65.

[Anonymous]

I have never ordered a single thing on Amazon, have any social media accounts, and have never ordered take out food on line or in an app.

I could do it I just dont want to do it. I do take Uber but I rather take a cab, limo, train, plane, renta a car. I do it as I am forced to in most cases.

I dont like that Uber has forced itself onto people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The App and Stranger Danger. They were raised with taxis and feel taxi drivers are vetted more, so they feel safer.

But Lyft allows women to get female drivers.

Have people had a good experience with that?

I’ve never heard of that option and just looked in my lift app to verify that it’s at least not available in the Arlington, Va area. Given that 99% of Lyft drivers are men whereas closer to 50% of Lyft users are women it doesn’t sound particularly viable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I refuse to use cabs. Sooo many sketchy stories from my 20s in DC. Cab drivers really took advantage of us, especially when we were drunk. I remember they’d switch us into other cabs to go across the border to va. They’d refuse our service if they didn’t like where we were going. They’d refuse credit card, which was a big one for me. Work would only reimburse if I used my work credit card, so I’d get stuck with the full bill due to these scammy cabs. They wouldn’t turn on ac even when it was sweltering so they could save money. I was even abandoned once in the middle of no where. Man I hated dc taxis.

+100! So many sketchy DC cab drivers in the early 2000s, who would take advantage of the nebulous “zone system” rather than using meters so they could essentially make up whatever charge they wanted.

I remember one particular incident when my roommate and I got in a cab to head home and the driver claimed it would be ~$15 which was around the typical fare for the distance we were going. He then drove until we were passing through a somewhat sketchy area and then told us that the fare would actually be $60 (making up some ridiculous reason for the fee hike) and that we need to pay up front in cash or he would boot us from the cab right there.

So grateful to Uber for destroying the DC cab mafia!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most probably aren't afraid of it, if they use taxis.

It's just the inconvenience of the app crap and setting up accounts and all.

If you could just call for a ride and pay cash, they'd use it more, as would more younger people.

THIS.
Plus it's sketchy doing financial stuff like that. Cash is king among younger people again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are you? I’m 40 and hesitant with Ubers, I grew up taking cabs and both grandfathers drove cabs. Cabs were regulated.

Uber you are essentially trusting a random person who may have a significant criminal history to get you from point a to be without direct oversight and management.

This is it. I am a female >40.

Our ENTIRE childhood it was drilled into our heads, DO NOT GET IN A CAR WITH A STRANGER. That is the Uber/Lyft model.

We even saw a movie in elementary school with little girls walking home from school, they accept a ride with a [male] stranger, and then next thing they are running through the woods (like you are them, running away from the stranger)... and then it jumps to seeing pieces of clothing in the woods/creek. No girls of course, but one can infer what happened. It was terrifying.

So yes, I have and use apps.

I have never used an Uber/Lyft by myself, without DH.

To me, that is getting in the car with a stranger.

Yes I have taken taxi rides, and for some reason, because it's a taxi, and their ID is in a little card in the back seat, and, you contacted a company and are on record, I have less fear of it being a fake ride with the sole purpose to s*x assault, death, etc.

Women should dress more modestly.

[Anonymous]

I use Uber but generally hate it. The drivers, IMO, tend to be hit or miss. Many are simply incompetent and unsafe or they drive so slowly I want to jump out of the car and walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are you? I’m 40 and hesitant with Ubers, I grew up taking cabs and both grandfathers drove cabs. Cabs were regulated.

Uber you are essentially trusting a random person who may have a significant criminal history to get you from point a to be without direct oversight and management.

This is it. I am a female >40.

Our ENTIRE childhood it was drilled into our heads, DO NOT GET IN A CAR WITH A STRANGER. That is the Uber/Lyft model.

We even saw a movie in elementary school with little girls walking home from school, they accept a ride with a [male] stranger, and then next thing they are running through the woods (like you are them, running away from the stranger)... and then it jumps to seeing pieces of clothing in the woods/creek. No girls of course, but one can infer what happened. It was terrifying.

So yes, I have and use apps.

I have never used an Uber/Lyft by myself, without DH.

To me, that is getting in the car with a stranger.

Yes I have taken taxi rides, and for some reason, because it's a taxi, and their ID is in a little card in the back seat, and, you contacted a company and are on record, I have less fear of it being a fake ride with the sole purpose to s*x assault, death, etc.

Women should dress more modestly.

Quiet piggy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m on a travel FB group and there are always older people asking how to get from A to B, and whenever Uber is proposed, they have 100,000,001 reasons why they won’t work for them, but they would be open to taking a cab.

One is currently asking if she should RENT A WHOLE CAR to drive from the airport to the cruise port, all in the same morning. Someone suggested Uber and they said no.

Why? And it can’t simply be that they are “scared of change”, can it?

Why is it called "uber"? Is this like calling it "yellow cab"?

[Anonymous]

New poster. I think you are underestimating the power of being scared of any change/anything new, and how early it starts in many people.
I have a friend in her early 40s who “hates” changes in user interface, changes that come with updates on her phone etc
I know someone in her early 50s who still uses a navigation device that is attached to her old car without a screen. Actually I’m wrong, her DH finally wrangled her into buying a new car so I expect to hear a lot of complaints how horrible it is getting used to it.
These are relatively young people, so those who are elderly are way worse.
Cognitive decline often starts in the 50s unfortunately, many people in their 60s are already not too sharp, let alone in their 80s!
We overestimate the adequacy of old people that’s for sure.
Source: hanging out with a lot of elderly people, very few of whom are sharp and flexible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never ordered a single thing on Amazon, have any social media accounts, and have never ordered take out food on line or in an app.

I could do it I just dont want to do it. I do take Uber but I rather take a cab, limo, train, plane, renta a car. I do it as I am forced to in most cases.

I dont like that Uber has forced itself onto people.

Omg how old are you even?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 50 and have never needed an Uber. If I travel, I take the subway or have a friend pick me up.

My mom is 77 and would never use an Uber. She's kind of shocked that others do.

What if you go somewhere with no subway and no friends?

She probably doesn’t as she is too anxious. Or maybe she rents a car?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stubborn refusal to adopt tech.

My DH is a boomer and I'm X, and he %$#@ing will not put Uber on his phone. It's because he has only like two apps (BOA and something weather-related), and he refuses to use any more than that. He's just being a Luddite. Whenever we need it, I have to order the Uber. We were just traveling in the UK and when I ordered one to go to Heathrow he was standing on the curb and said "How do you know they will know to come?" Irritated as all hell I showed him the app that showed the car a block away driving toward us. He was amazed. I might as well have shown him the Holy Grail. When it cost half of what the cab (he had insisted on) from the airport had cost, he still wasn't convinced.

It's very irritating. He has other qualities to make up for this, though.

And people like him then expect everyone to help them, infuriating!