Uber

This week on KALW's showcase for the best stories from public radio podcasts and independent radio producers...

The North Bay fires — on top of claiming lives, homes, and businesses — also claimed vehicles. Crosscurrents host Hana Baba talked with KALW's transportation reporter Eli Wirtschafter about next steps for people who lost their cars in the wildfires.

We’re following up on our conversation about regulating the ride-hailing industry.

We’ll have a conversation with ride-hailing drivers, from taxis to Uber about how the industry ought to be regulated.

We'll have a discussion about ride hailing companies and how they are impacting transportation and life in the Bay Area. In 2016, San Francisco had the third worst traffic congestion in the nation.

The training floor of God’s Gym is definitely old school – one room crammed with barbells, benches, and ancient weight machines.

Harbir Batth isn’t having a good day. Not many fares.

“It's been terrible,” he tells me.

Then finally, some hope appears: a doorman for the Parc 55 Hotel in Union Square hails the cab over. They hop in and we’re headed to North Beach.

Instead of working just one job for a single employer, more and more of us are becoming gig workers: people who consult, freelance, contract, temp, and do jobs on-call. The number of Americans with these alternative work arrangements has been growing steadily over the last ten years. 

The VTA Flex pilot program ended on July 1. VTA's Chief Technology Officer Gary Miskell says they are examining other ways to deploy on-demand transit. When we reported on Flex, the challenges in providing such transit were already visible. 

Moises Olmedo, a software engineer, used to leave 50 minutes to get to work by public transit. He would walk or bike to the light rail station, wait for the train, ride for 20 minutes, and then walk the rest of the way to his job at Cisco. All this despite living just three miles away.

One year into her term as mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf speaks with KALW's Ben Trefny about the city's affordability crisis, the rising tech industry, public safety, education, police training and what will happen with the Raiders and the A's.

This week on KALW's showcase for the best stories from public radio podcasts and independent radio producers... 

On the June 18th edition of Your Call, we’ll discuss privacy protection. A recent University of Pennsylvania study found that many Americans feel they have no control over how companies use their information. The New York Times reports that Uber is tracking the location of customers’ devices even when they are not actively using Uber’s app. What are new tactics in data mining, and how can we combat them? It’s Your Call with Rose Aguilar, and you.

Guests:

One the May 29th edition of Your Call, it’s our Friday media roundtable. This week, we’ll discuss coverage of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and the mayoral victory of anti-eviction activist Ada Colau in Barcelona. We’ll also discuss coverage of Uber’s rising political influence in Washington. We’ll be joined by the Center for Public Integrity’s Dave Levinthal, YES! Magazine’s Sarah van Gelder, and independent journalist Miguel-Anxo Murado. Join the conversation on the next Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:

This week on KALW's showcase for the best stories from public radio podcasts and independent radio producers...

Sharing economy companies like Uber and Lyft have become a powerful part of the economy. Now, some of the workers propelling that sector are organizing to ask for more from the companies that pay them. Drivers from both companies have filed a lawsuit -- they want to be made employees rather than contractors, and receive the benefits mandated by the state of California.

On the August 4th edition of  Your Call, we’ll have a conversation about the transformation of the sharable economy with the explosion of for-profit companies like Airbnb, Lyft, and Task Rabbit? Big investors and venture capitalists are backing these companies. Who’s investing? What is the original mission of the sharing economy and how has it changed? What should a sharing economy look like? Join the conversation on the next Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:

Back in December, we ran a story about Uber, the app that matches users to the closest town car or taxicab. Uber gets its money by charging its own rates, which can cost much more than a typical meter.

Listener Mark Gruberg called in to let us know that we missed something: that regular cabs are using apps, without the extra cost.