The single most surprising takeaway that continues to return to me from driving rideshare in St Louis for about 24 months is that people, in general, are much more decent and have more common sense than we may perceive ourselves as a national community to have. I was not particularly hopeful that I would be […]
So Few Left
I am more familiar with the neighborhoods around Soulard Park than other neighborhoods because at one time I lived nearby. Things can change so fast within five years in any large city, but the swings in St Louis are baffling, at least they were to me until I learned more about the recent history of […]
The Uncle From Chicago
I don’t know whether I’ve seen a happier man than the great uncle who rode to the nursery school of his niece’s young daughter to escort her return from school. Somewhere in North St Louis as we rode, he told how he had moved from Chicago for the express purpose of the care of this […]
Why Are You Here
When I started driving rideshare, a friend had helped me find a used Hyundai Santa Fe. The exterior and interior were clean, it was easy to maintain, and it had been reasonably inexpensive to purchase so rather than the added expense of a monthly auto payment, the earnings from my small business would be profit […]
Falsely Accused Amidst Tragedy
A man about 21 years old – when he was riding with me – had been driving the car of a friend, and she, the owner, riding in the front passenger seat. Her passenger side door had been damaged in a previous accident, and had yet to be repaired. As they passed a freight hauling […]
Tricked: Go To Jail
It is now 2021, and although I haven’t written about my experiences driving rideshare with Uber in St Louis, stories of my riders which reshaped my image of St Louis during the last two years I lived there are still easy to remember. A young woman entered my car in the Central West End neighborhood […]
Users: Aside From Very Busy, Who Are These People?
Unless you’ve personally met millions of people, first hand human interaction at the level of a widely used software application is an abstract study in anticipation. Software usage being a one on one interaction between a person and a machine interface rules out one to many crowds, such as performances or speaking engagements as relative […]
The Fleeting Generosity Of Users’ Attention
We, as users, do not grant much time. A significant benefit of interacting with a machine instead of humans, is to accomplish a task, by means of a short path, which will save us time so that we can proceed to undertake other more interesting, more pleasurable, or meaningful endeavors. Unless, of course, the user […]