I was already on the drivers side with the “we do it all the time. it’s just down the street” I don’t really care if they do it all the time. The driver doesn’t want to drive kids. but telling the driver to fuck off is worse. Wonder if the driver can get more pay for the harassment. Only defense the parent could have had was that the driver could have canceled the trip themself.
Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
Seriously, I was a few blocks from my hotel, looking for a specific restaurant and stopped in a convenience store to get directions.
Yeah, it’s that way a couple of blocks. Like, do you want one of us to give you a ride?
tbf, in many places in America walking a couple blocks is a legitimately bad and dangerous idea, especially for kids, because pedestrian/non-car infrastructure and safety is so dog shit
I’m a school bus driver and we have an insane number of kids that get transported less than half a mile, solely because we lack sidewalks and drivers here are batshit crazy.
Uh, I know people in Houston (the most car dependent major city in the US) who would call an uber to cross the street because it’s so fucking hot in the summer you would need to change your suit if you tried the trip on foot.
Also the street is probably a 14-lane highway.
Also yes.
Thinking back to my youth when it was just endless sprawl of houses with no side walks or even street lights… I walked around in that “neighborhood” a lot and it always felt scary and unsafe, if rideshare had been a thing back then (and I wasn’t too poor to afford it which I definitely would have been) I would have liked the option to stay off the narrow gravel road shoulders with drivers passing by me at 45-50mph
I’m not paying a cancellation fee, that’s on you if you are refusing the trip.
That’s on you if you’re trying to send your kid off in a stranger’s car against both common sense and the company’s terms of service
You can ride in an uber as young as 13 alone. It’s against the terms of service for the driver to ask you to cancel.
It’s written directly in thier policy the driver must cancel the ride in the event an underage child that’s too young to be unaccompanied. Exactly this situation.
The policy says it’s the Uber drivers responsibility to cancel not yours.
And in that event, the cancelation fee is the responsibility of the person that booked it, not the Uber driver’s.
From Uber’s driver help page:
If you suspect a rider is underage
- Politely ask them to show a driver’s license or ID card to confirm their age.
- You have the option to cancel the trip if you believe the rider is underage (Select unaccompanied minor as the cancellation reason and potentially receive a cancellation fee).
They apparently do have Teen rides now but only through a connected account and only in a few cities. I would assume Lyft has similar policies.
it’s an insane risk. I work for transportation in k-12 and I would never transport kids without several feet of paperwork, it’s difficult even with that. you have to have a lot of policies about what to do if and when anything happens, they won’t get out, they have a medical emergency, they refuse to use a seat belt, they scream racial slurs, they start a journey of self discovery, they hit their head on hard objects for fun, they punch windows aggressively while screaming, they report criminal acts of themselves or others, they light up a Jay, they start discovering others, they forcefully insist on discovering others without consent, and so on. unaccompanied minors are a nightmare just in terms of liability and crisis management.
I wonder if the parent could’ve just accompanied them and returned in the same Uber, it’s not even a new ride back
most likely
I don’t know the details, but Lyft has teen, pink, and silver.
Teen is obvious, silver I assume refers to middle-aged and above, but pink? Are we transporting babies straight from the womb?
Woman riders who prefer a woman drivefr
This country is such a backwards shit hole. People are afraid to let their kids walk a few blocks, on a route they’re familiar with, cause some asshole may try and call DCFS on them.
Meanwhile there are more fucking cameras deployed in public than in any time in human history, and they have the capability to network together and track people and relay information to police, emt’s, for fire departments, etc all in real time… But we don’t use it to help make people safer, or give them peace of mind, or allow their kids to play and be free.
That should tell you everything about the real intentions of all this surveillance bullshit.
It’s not here to keep the slaves safe. It’s here to keep them in line
Those few blocks may be constructed in such a way that they’d be walking in the road with traffic whizzing around them. If there ever was a sidewalk it’s been removed to add another lane for cars.
💯 it could be a couple of blocks of six lane highway lite suburban hellscape and not a couple of blocks of residential roads.
…But if it was residential roads then lol
Seeing posts like this makes me realise how lucky I am to have been born in a country with sane pedestrian infrastructure and generally safe environment.
I found it funny when I watched a video titled “10 most surprising things about Finland” and one of them was about how kids just walk about in the city, on their own. I was confused as to why that is so shocking but then I remembered that North America has sort of forgot about using legs as a mode of transport.
There is a wonderful moment in back to the future 3 where doc gets drunk and starts describing the car-centric future to the people of the old west.
Old timer: why, does anyone still walk or run?
Doc Brown: only for recreation
This is completely crazy. Land of the free.
"Authorities said they would drop the charge against Patterson if she signs a safety plan that involves the use of a GPS tracker on her son’s phone but Patterson told ABC News she is refusing to sign it.
“I just felt like I couldn’t sign that and that in doing so, would be agreeing that there was something unsafe about my home or something unsafe about my parental decisions and I just don’t believe that,” Patterson said.
Patterson, who is currently out on bail, faces up to 1 year in jail with the reckless conduct charge."
America does not want children to exist, yet perpetually laments that children never go outside to play anymore.
and they lament that while not building playgrounds where young children can socialize and play, while destroying third spaces to hang out and socialize in for teenagers, and… most egregious of all, when they finally do go outside, calling the cops on them for a variety of made up reasons regardless of their age. Especially if their tan is a shade too dark.
lol.
Some time ago I picked up my 10 year old niece from the train station. She first walked 3km to a bus stop, then went 15km with the bus to the train station, then 180km to where I picked her up and drove to my parents. Only reason I picked her up was because she didn’t know what buses to use etc. After that, my mum showed her how the buses work and which ones to use etc so ever since that, she’s been doing the trip completely own her own.
it helps you have functional public infrastructure.
America? Not so much. It can take hours to get somewhere outside of like new york or chicago, where it takes a care maybe 20-30 minutes to get to. and I know this for a fact, because I’ve tried to take the bus on numerous occasions, and found it to be faster to walk unless you luck out and happen to have your destination on the same bus route you got on with no transfers.
Yeah I know, like I said in my original comment, I realize I’m incredibly lucky to have been born here with all this available for me.
and I’m so glad for you, and totally not seething with green eyed jealousy <3
Theehee. I’ve said this many times to many people, if anyone wants to migrate, I’m willing to do a Finnish equivalent of a green-card marriage lol
do I get to be the big spoon?
North America has sort of forgot about using legs as a mode of transport.
If they remember to use them a moron in a lifted emotional-support-pickup-truck will break every bone in their body at the first intersection. And get away with it. North American city design is not just car-centric, it’s actively human-hostile. Giant stroads, no sidewalks, no bike lanes…
i regularly cross a dangerous intersection and have to veep my head on a swivel because the only thing between me and a huge suv or truck is a curb
I was walking myself from an inner suburb to dowtnown of a mid sized town in the US, maybe 3 km or so. Except for the part of the highway bridge which was positively dangerous, it was a pleasant walk. Locals considered us as crazy lunatics and the only reason they probably did not send us to an asylum was because we were Europeans and they do that crazy stuff like walking all the time.
I remember the day before the first day of school, my mom walked me to and from the school so I would know the path, every other day I walked myself to school, across a railroad and several blocks.
At 10 I was allowed to bike to and from school ( school rule)
Sweden is great
I was so salty when I lived 50m too close to the school and wasn’t “allowed” to bicycle to the school haha. After a couple of years, I realized that nobody is going to punish me, or care, if I used a bicycle.
I took a bike to school from age 6 onward in the USA in the 90’s. It was pretty normal, too, lots of my peers would ride their bikes in from ages 6-13. It’s really weird how quickly this shifted in the USA, IMO.
I was just talking to a coworker the other day because I want to move somewhere outside the city center. I don’t currently have a car, but would like to have one again. But I still want to find somewhere walkable to live because that to me is freedom.
Yeah I like to “troll” some of the car-centric people by saying that a bicycle/walking is the ultimate freedom. You don’t need a license for it, you aren’t relying on fuel stations, you can bicycle on the road, on the sidewalk, in the forest, on the lake shore, mountains… With a car your freedom is limited.
unfortunately some asshole politicians want to require insurance to ride a bike
Really? Who and where? lol
Sounds silly
Haha, should have guessed it was America doing shenanigans again
Sometimes people exaggerate tremendously about “a couple of blocks” in my experience. And it could also involve crossing some very busy intersections.
Or this person is just a moron, that’s also an option.
There are lots of people who don’t realize the word “couple” means two. Like they ask me for a couple of something and I give them exactly two and then they are confused because they expected several more.
When I was a kid, I needed clarification on these weasel words. My dad told me, a couple is two or three, but not one. One is always one. Four to six is a few, and seven or more is several, and you can remember that because several sounds like seven.
So, that’s always been it for me. If you ask me for a couple you’ll probably get two, but maybe three. You’ll get five or six if you ask for a few, and you’ll get seven if you ask for several. My dad an I were a lot alike.
Also, a “handful” is either five, because five fingers, of course, or however many I can grab with one hand, if it’s candy or something.
They confuse it with “few”
lol I was one such person when I was younger.
but the amount 2 matches both definitions, so he is clearly dealing with morons
I didn’t say they were wrong, just that they are a pedant. If people consistently ask you for “a couple of X”, and you give them 2, and they are always confused, maybe it’s not that the people are stupid, but that you are communicating badly on purpose to feel superior
why would they be confused if they receive 2 things? a couple of means in any case 2 or more.
Bad example. More like if OP asked for a couple of peanuts and was confused when he received 3
I know Lemmy is basically just Reddit and thus full of pedants who think they are smarter than the average person. But you need to realise that 99% of people out there don’t think of 2 items when thinking about “a couple of things”. In my 15 or so years of knowing English, I’ve never encountered a use of “a couple of” where the speaker meant exactly two. So yes they are correct technically, but at the same time just communicating poorly
yes we do think of two things (maybe three) when someone says “a couple of things”.
that’s a totally normal interpretation.
sounds like your English teacher taught you wrong, as a joke.
a couple of blocks means two or three blocks, and more likely two.
if I was looking for something “a couple of blocks away” and still hadn’t seen it by the fourth, I’d assume the directions were wrong or I’d got lost.
I’m on your side against atomicblocks, but in my 65+ years of speaking English I have been in many, many situations where “a couple” of things meant exactly two. Even situations where the exact number is quite important but also familiar and understood, like “take a couple of aspirin” or “I hitched a couple of horses to the wagon.” But also many situations where it meant a small handful or the exact number wasn’t important. Both uses are acceptable but “a few” or “some” or “several” are preferable if it’s three or more. People who ask for “a couple” while expecting more are pretending to themselves and you that they aren’t being greedy.
The person you called a pedant is merely literal-minded.
FWIW I’ve had this utterly engrossing and important discussion with numerous friends, family, and acquaintances. We arrived at:
- Couple = 2 (max 3, rare, not ideal)
- 2 <= Few <= 3 (max 4 depending on context, but you’re pushing it)
- 4 <= Several <≈ 10
Exactly how many couples do you know that are made up of more than two people?
A few, but I live in an area where polyamory is pretty normalized
Perfect example and I believe they call that a “throuple” to avoid the confusion we see in this discussion
I usually hear terms like “thruple” in that situation.
different context. The definition I sent is specifically for “a couple of”
“A couple of people…”
Nope same context.
When referring to a romantic partnership it would just be “a couple”, not “a couple of people”. The latter would be interpreted as a group of several where I am.
It’s the phrase “a couple of blocks” that was under discussion. And then “ask me for a couple of something and I give them exactly two.” Couples of people didn’t arise until you shoehorned them in.
No, I asked a question about couples as an example. It really doesn’t matter though, a couple of blocks, and a couple of people are still only two of each of those things.
how often have you referred to a romantic couple as “a couple of people”. What if I say “A couple of people attended my party”, does that mean a romantic couple showed up and no one else?
It certainly means that only two people showed up. But now you are nitpicking, and still wrong.
a couple of phrase : two (things) or if you are intellectually challenged a few (things).
Everything is a challenge
ok redditor
Let me guess, you came directly to Lemmy from Facebook?
even if that were true, that only extends out to three - not four+
where are you all getting those numbers from? If you ask me for a couple of pens and I give you four pens, would you even notice in that moment and be weirded out?
Edit: And what do you mean “even if that were true”, my brother in christ this is a contemporary dictionary. This is how people use the phrase
Yeah I was out of town for work in St Louis and got sick, went to the urgent care clinic and got a scrip, the pharmacy was “across the street” - and it was - just the street was 6 lanes of traffic with a concrete divider and no pedestrian crossing. In the end my sick ass dodged cars and climbed the barrier, risking my life, especially as I wasn’t feeling well. But I probably should’ve called an Uber.
And depending on the age of the kids, letting your kids walk even a couple of blocks could be enough to get the cops and CPS called on you. Unfortunately, the days of letting your kids roam freely outside are over.
Only in one very specific backwards country*
Sure but we all know that’s where this incident happened lol
murica things
it surely applies also to letting them unattended in a strangers car
Not in Europe. Just pick a better place to live.
I wish moving country was that simple
I mean, yeah, it’s not that simple per se. But still, people from the US generally have a lot of options. Just did a quick check and for Germany, up to 90 days don’t even require a visa. If you want to stay longer you still can just get here, announce your intent to stay within the first week and then sort things out. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s definitely more doable than for a lot of other places.
“Just quit your job and have enough money to travel outside the country even though you’ve never had that much money in your life and then overstay your visa in a country in which you don’t speak the language and are definitely not going to be able to use your degree… it’s totally doable!”
WTF?
It’s not simple period. No caveats needed.
Damn. Shoulda picked a better spawn point during characheter creation. Mah bad.
You clearly have no idea how hard it is to move.
So…
A) This woman doesn’t trust her children to walk a couple blocks on their own, but does trust a complete stranger to pick them up in their car instead… A+ parenting.
B) I 1000% percent get that driver’s hard line here. Best case scenario, you get a couple bucks for carrying some well behaved kids down the street. But the possible worse cases include kids who can’t answer questions or follow instructions making your job harder, unruly children damaging your vehicle (and being forced into a position where you need to control a child that is both a stranger and your client), people seeing you pick up unattended children and calling the police, the child making a SA or other legal claim about you and immediately ending your Uber gig while threatening your livlihood and freedom… not worth the risk.
A. There are definitely neighborhoods where this could be the case. Living in such a neighborhood probably means parent is working odd hours and has to make some parenting compromises. I think it’s way too easy to pass judgment on parents - it’s got to be a monumental task esp in poverty.
What’s abhorennt is trying to get a worker to break policy that could jepordize their job and being really rude about it too.
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