Via Car Service Launches Unlimited Rides in NYC, DC, & Chicago
A friend of mine recently turned me on to a newer car service (been out for a while apparently but just expanded their service area here in NYC) called Via.
The idea behind Via is that they essentially work like UberPool: you order a car, share it with other riders, and it picks you up and drops you off within a few blocks of your origin/destination to optimize routes. But, the reason I’m writing about it now is that it just launched something I think is a huge differentiator: unlimited rides.
The service itself is already pretty cheap. The reason I was turned on to it is because of their around $6 rides between Manhattan and Brooklyn (to compare, Uber Pool would be close to $20, UberX would be about $30, and a subway ride is $2.75).
These new unlimited rides, which no other car service I know of offers, would cost $63 for a weekly pass and $243 for a monthly pass (comparing that to our unlimited subway pricing of unlimited weekly for $32 and unlimited 30 day for $121) which isn’t too bad to be driven around all day and night, no?
Now, there are a few caveats though (of course) like adding an extra person will cost you $3, airport trips don’t count but you get 20% off of those, and anything between Manhattan and Brooklyn doesn’t count (if it did I’d sign up immediately without hesitation) but is still half off.
The prices for Chicago and DC are of course less than here in NYC, see the table below for more info on those.
[table id=9 /]
Am I the only one that is excited about this idea of unlimited rides? Even just the prospect of it lowering the price of other car services because of competition eventually maybe?
I love the idea, but I need more information about the coverage area. I will be doing a great deal of commuting from Manhattan to and from Queens