Mindless Uber & Lyft Overcharges Passengers Fleeing Seattle Mass Shooting

What happened during the January 22nd, 2020, 5:00 PM downtown 3rd & Pine shooting aftermath is as much about the city of Seattle and as it is about Uber and Lyft's unfortunate response---overcharging panicked customers fleeing the area.  What everyone has since found out is that the two remaining shooting suspects, William Ray Tolliver and Marquise Latrelle Tolbert, had many previous arrests, Tolliver arrested 50 times, with Tolbert 24 times over the past few years.  And the reason for Uber and Lyft's price gouging during this crisis were apps governed by algorithms electronically (and mindlessly) setting rates based upon demand regardless of why passenger demand is generated.

By this time, Uber lack of morality is well known, caring only about money and little else, all and any repercussions be damned. While both Uber and Lyft are offering refunds, it is obvious this kind of price surging will reoccur again and again across the globe, nothing changing, the companies holding no interest in modifying their behavior. That is the way it is.  What I am really saying is, don't believe self-serving apologies applied as media bandages, assuaging self-afflicted wounds.

And in reflection, the shooting displays Seattle and King County's usual and typical governmental response to real issues affecting the overall city, spotlighting its present and ongoing tolerance of open criminal activity in around 3rd & Pine and greater downtown, irritating anyone witnessing what now is commonplace---blatant drug selling and verbal and physical assaults centered around the area MacDonalds. Why fear arrest when you know you will be quickly released, leading to what occurred: indiscriminate shooting killing one innocent bystander and wounding seven others. None of this is surprising and here is why.

The City and County government in total decided years ago, and I am including successive mayors, county executives, and city and county councils, to prioritize the unnecessary while ignoring real and serious issues afflicting the region.  This kind of decision making is manifest everywhere, from building bike lanes while traffic continues to clog city streets, to allowing the dismantling of a multiple story construction crane on Mercer Street during busy, daylight traffic, the crane crashing down and killing two drivers, this and many other examples displaying a severe lack of thought and careful planning.

"Why do it right when instead, far more fun doing it wrong," seems to their blaring credo, a kind of blind operational advice for the governmentally stunted.  This kind of behavior also seen in the continual building of traffic intersection barriers upon residential streets, impeding normal traffic flow and knocking cars out of alignment.  Instead of partnering with the State of Washington to develop more stringent driver licensing standards, and indeed make everyone truly safer, the  City of Seattle plants trees and flowering scrubs in the middle of the street, achieving little more than aggravation while not improving driving skills or civility, the same issues festering and extant, worsening by the minute.

And yes, who opened the floodgates to Uber and Lyft, encouraging their reckless, corporate behavior?  You know who, the very same individuals letting emotionally damaged young men repeatedly roam Seattle's downtown streets---fighting, selling drugs and randomly shooting people.

If this is progressive and liberal policy at its best, then perhaps an alternative is necessary, like using commonsense as your guide minus harebrained theory. Who knows, maybe admitting the truth will truly set us all free, free that is to come up with real and permanent solutions assisting and aiding all involved equally.   Could that be any worse than the now usual Seattle talk, talk talk resulting in spinning circles going round and round and round ad nauseam?

I don't think so, or like the City of Seattle and King County, perhaps I am just not thinking?