Those Fuzzy Pink Mustaches on Cars Actually Mean Something
I've been seeing cars driving around the city with those weird pink fuzzy mustaches on their grills for some months now. I figured it was just a cancer protest, or maybe the automobile version of the hanky code, thereby alerting fellow motorists to honk twice for some parking lot handie or something. But after seeing more and more of these things, my curiosity got the better of me. So while crossing the street the other day, I spotted one of these pink mustache rides stopped at the red light and went up to the driver's window, knocked on it, and asked what's up.
Here's a brief account of the conversation, most of which the young female driver spent frantically finishing for something in her purse (mace?):
Me: Hey, what's the deal with the pink mustache thing on...
Driver: I don't have any money leave me alone!
Me: What? No, I wanna know about the mustache.
Driver (cracking her window): Oh, uh, it tells people that I'm a taxi.
Me: A what?
Driver: It's through an app called Lyft. People say they need a ride and I go pick 'em up. Donation-based. They give me however much they think is fair to pay me.
Me: Isn't that illegal?
Driver: No. At least I don't think it is.
Me: Weird.
Driver: Dude the light is green and you're standing in the middle of traffic.
Me: Oh, right.
Anyway, now I know!
Comments
The service has a built-in pickup line: "Hey babe, want a mustache ride?"
Did she think you were a panhandler? Mission residents need to dress up.
This article has singlehandedly prevented me from ripping one of these mustaches off and setting it on fire.
This doesn't seem like it would be legal. Don't you need either a livery or a hack license to transport paying customers? Never even mind the insurance considerations.
I suspect they use the donation-based payment to skirt the livery/taxi laws, but I'm skeptical of the validity of that approach. Fully agree on the insurance question, in that I'm sure the drivers aren't telling their insurers. However, I read a more in depth article about the service recently, and it may have said that the company provides insurance coverage. But I might have made that detail up.
Hitchhiking isn't illegal, and as long as it's for a donation instead of a priced fee, it's no different than picking up a stranger and giving them a lift.
I'm not at all convinced that the city/courts would agree with you.
From their Twitter account: "We did tons of due diligence on this. It's legal because it's prearranged, noncommercial transport paid by voluntary donation."
The "voluntary donation" part seems to be the issue. The recommended donation is 80% of the normal taxi fare and, if you don't "voluntarily donate," you are basically blacklisted by the drivers.
Seems like a slightly dishonest way to skirt laws. (But taxis are too expensive and notoriously terrible, so maybe this kick in the ass might make MTA adjust appropriately.)
I fully believe that they fully believe that it is legal. I'm just skeptical that it would stand up in court should the city (or any city, assuming they operate elsewhere) choose to take them to court for it.
Yeah, because people pay lawyers to perform "due diligence" so
they can get a result they *want* to hear, not because "due diligence" is supposed to result
in anything that's remotely legally sound.
Money well spent, innit
Hitchhiking is absolutely illegal (California Vehicle Code section 21957). What makes this "legal" is that the ride is prearranged.
I've been wondering about those things for weeks as well. Thanks for the info!
Hey that's my 3-wheeler up there, her name is Roz. She isn't a taxi, I just have that mustache on there cause I'm silly, AND want people to know I'm NOT DPT.
That whole left thing started and I didn't know about it. It's funny though, Roz is pretty much a 1-seater, but people still think I' coming to pick them up.
Cool. Thanks for the info. Ive been itchin to know whats up with these things. Theres also a big billboard on Howard at 4th I think, that has a pink mustache that says Lyft. Kinda dumb that they dont want people to get the word out.
I saw one on a Prius; I'm not that desperate for a "Lyft".
There are tons of real taxis that are Priuses. I fucking hate them. No headroom.
"Gypsy cabs" have been in use as long as there has been a cab industry only now some fool thinks they brainstormed this up and there are other companies besides Lyft out there doing the same thing, they use Craigslist to solicit drivers... I actually do think this is a good thing ..for now ... until SFMTA gets their claws into the money. SFMTA has practically ruined the Cab industry by forcing drivers to pay all kinds of absurd fees and making it damn near impossible for the average driver to "buy" a medallion for what is it now $80,000 so they can own their own cab much less make a decent living!
I almost took one of these tonight. Almost, I say, because the driver was obviously exploiting the whole idea. He hailed me as I crossed Mission at 24th and I was excited to finally be able to utilize the service, which I told him as I entered. I told him where I was going (Alamo Square) & asked him the driving fee. A normal taxi ride to my 'hood costs me $12, if I'm being polite and tipping well, but he asked for $20. I told him that was an illogical amount given that he wasn't a taxi and didn't have to shell over any costs to a taxi company, but he wouldn't budge. Isn't the whole idea to make getting around the city affordable and friendly? For at least two minutes I was worried I'd have to jump out of his car while he was in motion, but thankfully he slowed down enough for me to get out... as he chided me for not being willing to pay him the twenty bucks.
It's unfortunate that an idea so good would get exploited. Unfortunate, but not surprising. Fuck.
I'm a HUGE fan of Lyft -- what you describe isn't Lyft. All rides must be arranged through their mobile app. You should only do a ride through the app. Sounds like you came across an impostors.
Those moustaches annoy me. No wonder taxi drivers want the rates to go up.
There wont be to many of these cars on the road in a year or 2(lets hope) 1)the last thing we need is more cars in city. 2)Those stupid pink mustaches are put right over the air intake grill on most of the cars,drive like that over extended period of time and you will over heat your motor,hopefully ruining the car. Just stop being so goddamn lazy people. We want SUSTAINABLE cities but we dont want to make the hard sacrifices to make this a reality.
It looks quite funny if something post on your car or vehicle. The mustache on the front side of your car or auto certainly looks strange. Sometimes you might have seen people nicely decorates their car or auto before they going to outside for the work. So somehow it is a nice thing to decorate your vehicle. It looks nice. mercedes repair huntington beach
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