One of my good friends who lives in NYC got me hooked onto this app. A typical ride on a NYC subway will cost you about $2.75, if you can transfer easily.
But with VIA, you can skip all of that subway action (although, I do love the subway) and go door to door.
I once went from the apartment I was staying at all the way on the Upper East Side, 60th street area, way down to the Lower East Side down about 30 blocks to 27th street, and it cost me $7. That’s only about $4 more than a subway ride, though I did leave the driver a generous tip for his great service.
The discount fares on VIA do come with some catches.
The first: You’ll share the car with other people who hop on and hop off. My driver picked up a group along the way who ended up getting dropped off before me. So there was some car company for a bit.
Sometimes I’m chatty, sometimes I’m not. I sit in the front seat usually, so people getting on and off don’t bother me.
You can also book it for more than one person, so the price may vary. But for an extra $4, I didn’t have to lug my heels through the subway and braved the NYC traffic in a car. And theoretically, I could have had some sort of “chance meeting” on Via that might have made for an interesting story.
Another catch to keep in mind.
This isn’t exactly similar to Uber or Lyft, mostly because it’s used primarily in Manhattan. Because the driver is also picking up and dropping off other people, you may have to walk a street or two to get right on the driver’s path so that he or she can pick you up more quickly.
I usually will look and see where I need to meet the driver. If my feet are tired and it’s too many blocks away, I hit cancel and just get into a yellow taxi cab, or I get on the subway.
If I don’t care and I want to save some money, the quick walk, either to a street corner or down a block is worth the savings.
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