If you live in San Francisco, you've definitely heard about ride-sharing, the new-actually-not-that-new trend in start-ups "disrupting transportation" and using any individual with a car and an iPhone as a personal car service for any other person with a credit card and an iPhone. In the city there are at least three schools of thought when it comes to ride-sharing:
One: THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED TO SF OMG FREAK OUT. This is the opinion held by techie early adopter-types who call anyone with any sort of negative feelings about tech taking over our lives "luddites." They are usually wearing Google Glass or wish they were wearing it.
Two: Ride-sharing is destroying the fabric of the city. It is taking business away from the more democratic taxi system, which legitimately employs a bunch of people, not white, not rich people. Anyone can use taxis and they've been around forever so you shouldn't mess with them because CHANGE IS SCARY IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW BADLY THEY FUNCTION. This is the opinion often held by more political types who call in to talk radio shows.
Three: I don't really have time to care about ride-sharing and disrupting things and the fabric of the community or whatever, but that pink mustache is really embarrassing. This is the opinion held by mostly everyone else.
Up until last Thursday, I was solidly in the absolutely don't care but COME ON WITH THE PINK MUSTACHES camp. If I thought about Lyft and its ride-sharing brethren like Uber and Sidecar, which to be clear, I rarely did, I could see both sides of the equation: yeah, it's pretty cool that I can get whatever I want for an okay price, whenever I "need" it here in San Francisco, since I am an employed, single, middle class girl with no kids, but also, what about everyone else? Things getting easier and smoother for me always means things get a little harder for someone else, somewhere. Whether it's the Chinese laborers making my iPhone or the low-income kid who has to deal with less frequent bus service because not as many people are taking buses anymore, I care about the price of my actions, even if I don't always do anything about it besides feel guilty.