#NYTWA

[fuck-customers]

[macwantspeace]

Way to go to the AG queen

[crippledgiraff]

March of Robots stomps through the streets of the future, skillfully piloted by their drivers, flashing glitzy advertisements from their display-plates.

[bala5]

Nice to create art that makes a difference and helps bring about change and justice!

https://www.nytwa.org/

Four Ways to Support Them

1. Join their 24/7 protest at City Hall (Broadway & Murray) —stop by, take pictures & tweet at @NYCMayor and tag them @nytwa

2. Call Mayor De Blasio and tell him that we need real relief for drivers. See website for script.

3. Sign the online petition

4. Donate to support their organizing

[buckminster]

About the “Delete Uber” thing…

“[…] Deleting Uber is an easy way to participate in the resistance against the xenophobic hellscape wrought by the Trump campaign without having to sacrifice much in way of time, energy, and resources. That doesn’t mean the action bad. After all, nothing this day and age sends a stronger message than money (whether we’re giving it or denying it) and we slacktivists got Uber to form a $3 million legal fund for drivers affected by the immigration ban. And then, of course, there’s Lyft’s ACLU donation, which—though undoubtedly motivated by the bottom line—will go on to do very good things. And all of this was accomplished in the span of a weekend, just because some of us deleted our apps.

But for those of us who live in areas with multiple transit options, our conscious consumerism should not end there. Let’s not forget that it was the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) that showed real solidarity during the JFK protests this weekend, and not for the sole purpose of commercial gain. They have, with no uncertain terms, spoken against Trump’s disgusting Muslim ban and continually speak out for New York’s immigrant workforce.

Speaking on Democracy Now!, Bhairavi Desai of the NYTWA stated, “We were outraged by the so-called executive order. We are a workforce that is largely Muslim and Sikh...Across the country there were similar solidarity strikes by drivers. It was an act of solidarity, it was an act of consciousness.”

Desai added: “This an impoverished workforce, largely because of companies like Uber. When workers are kept poor we’re fragmented and it’s and harder take action. We are proud of of our members who stood united in the face of injustice.”

So rather than switching your alliance from Uber to Lyft or any other rideshare start-up, be smart and promise your brand loyalty to no one. It’s the drivers who deserve your support, whether they work for a rideshare app or a unionized cab company or something in between. No PR boon is worth your unquestioning support. Instead, keep speaking out for drivers’ rights, support the bravery of the NYTWA, and keep fighting for the immigrants that face unconstitutional detainment at our nation’s airports.”

in “It’s more complicated than Uber vs. Lyft”, Madeleine Davies for Jezebel

Integral article, here:

http://jezebel.com/its-a-more-complicated-choice-than-uber-vs-lyft-1791784214

[citylifeorg]

Mayor Adams, TLC, Marblegate Asset Management, NYTWA Announce Historic Taxi Medallion Debt Relief Program Deal, Providing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Relief to NYC Medallion Owners

Mayor Adams, TLC, Marblegate Asset Management, NYTWA Announce Historic Taxi Medallion Debt Relief Program Deal, Providing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Relief to NYC Medallion Owners

Photo by Vincent M.A. Janssen on Pexels.com Agreement Clears Way for More Than 3,000 Medallion Owners to Access Meaningful Debt Relief Medallion Owners Can Close on Restructured Loans Starting September 19th City, NYTWA, Marblegate to Hold Events Promoting Immediate Restructurings in September New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) Chair and…

[smooth100501]

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Oct 02, 2021 · According to the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), the average debt owed on medallions by taxi drivers is $600,000.... Erhan Tuncel, 61, obtained his taxi license in 1998 and purchased his. Popular Free Games. Taxi Games. Taxi City 3D. Subway Taxi: Car Simulator Game. Pixel Road Taxi Depot: 3D Car Simulator Game. New York Taxi License 3D. Taxi Madness.

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Taxi Driver - Poki Unblocked - Google.

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How does it work. Enter your pickup point and time, select your car. Verify the booking details and select your preferred payment method. Our Talixo driver picks you up at the given location and time. Enter your start and destination address, date and time. Talixo finds a suitable taxi and the best limousine offers within the categories Economy. TAXI GAMES Online Play Free Taxi Games on Poki. Assassin's Creed Odyssey Medesa Edition La chute de la Gorgone UBI. Team Sonic Racing Le patron de la Sonic Team rpond. New York Taxi License 3D Jeux gratuits en ligne sur. New York Taxi License 3D Game Play online at Ycom. Jeu de poker gratuit sans argent en ligne. Mauritius Police Force. As the name of the online game already tells you, in this fun new car game you are going to have the chance to be the driver of a super cool taxi in New York and your mission will be, of course, to do your taxi driver job as good as you can. Good luck. 3D games. Adventure. Boys. Car.

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‘They stole from us’: the New York taxi drivers mired in debt.

New York Rex. NG's 20th Anniversary Collab. Nicholas' weird adventure. Nicholas' Weird Adventure 2.... School Bus License. School Bus License 2. School Bus License 3. School Wars. Scooby Doo The Temple Of Lost Souls.... Poki Unblocked Is a Great Site for unblocked games. Poki Games Unblocked Contain almost all popular games for school. New York State residents age 16 or over can apply for a New York driver license. Step 1: Determine what license class and type you needClassD - Operator - this is what most people have (or DJ - Junior Operator, if under 18) A, B, C - Commercial (CDL) - (required to drive tractor trailers, buses etc.) learn about CDLs M - Motorcycle - learn about motorcycle licensesE - Taxi or Livery- learn. The Tesla Model 3 is the first electric vehicle approved as a yellow cab in New York City, and the first one has hit the road. In October 2019, Electrek was first to report that the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), which oversees the city’s fleet of yellow cabs, has approved the Tesla Model 3 as the first electric vehicle to be eligible to become a yellow cab in New York City.

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New York Taxi License is an online Street game for kids. It uses the Flash technology. Play this Racing game now or enjoy the many other related games we have at POG. Play Online Games POG: Play Online Games (127873 παιχνίδια) Το POG ξεμπλοκάρει όλα τα Y8 παιχνίδια.. Added on May 29, 2013. Video Walkthrough. In the New York Taxi License 3D game it's the Earning your license, really never has been so fun. Can you complete all 18 levels, on icy roads, View this New York Taxi License 3D. #3d unity #cab #driver license #driving #taxi unity #yellow cab #unblocked #unblocked games wtf #unblocked games.

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New York State authorities require drivers to have at least one plate for their vehicles, namely, cars, trailers and motorcycles. New York was the first state to demand this in America. For that or another reason, 100-years old blue-and-gold plates are still in fashion. They have been brought back in 2010.

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[cloudtales]

NYC Taxi Drivers Win Debt Relief After 2-Week Hunger Strike

NYC Taxi Drivers Win Debt Relief After 2-Week Hunger Strike

After a two-week hunger strike and two months of sit-ins, dozens of taxi drivers in New York City hosted a long-awaited celebration outside City Hall on November 10. On November 3, New York City reached an agreement with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), the union fighting to relieve drivers of thousands of dollars in debt they owe for medallions, the physical permits to operate taxis.…

[silas216]

http://twitter.com/silas216/status/1306744593929646080

Brooklyn Bridge is SHUT DOWN! Taxi drivers demand debt forgiveness now! pic.twitter.com/rykiPHXYNX

— NY Taxi Workers (@NYTWA) September 17, 2020

from Twitter https://twitter.com/silas216 September 17, 2020 at 06:59PM via IFTTT

[bala5]

https://www.nytwa.org/

Four Ways to Support Us

1. Join our 24/7 protest at City Hall (Broadway & Murray) —stop by, take pictures & tweet at @NYCMayor and tag us @nytwa

2. Call Mayor De Blasio and tell him that we need real relief for drivers. See website for script.

3. Sign our online petition

4. Donate to support our organizing

[gyrlversion]

Global Drivers’ Strike Shows Tide May Be Shifting for Uber and Lyft

Drivers and supporters protest against Uber and other ride-hailing companies near the Wall Street Charging Bull on May 8, 2019 in New York City. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

From 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Uber, Lyft, Juno, and Via drivers went on strike in New York City. Their work stoppage was one of several that took place in major cities around the world. In a press release, members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance complained of low pay and worsening work conditions. Syed Ali, identified by NYTWA as an Uber driver, said he’s striking because the company “has broken their promises to drivers time and again.” At first, he added, working for Uber had seemed like a promising gig. “But then Uber cut our rates and they tried to tell us we’d be earning more even though they paid us less. What kind of craziness is that?”

There’s data to back up the drivers’ claims. Last year, analysis from the JP Morgan Chase Institute found that drivers for Uber and Lyft make “less than half of what they did four years ago.” That decline may be attributable in part to a decline in the number of hours drivers work, but Uber has also reduced per-mile pay rates for drivers. As Vox reported in March, the company cut rates by 25 percent in Los Angeles County and certain areas of Orange County; at the time, drivers picketed the company’s offices in LA.

Wednesday’s global strike shows the mettle of an emerging labor movement. Gig workers are organizing, and as Noah Smith noted at Bloomberg, the latest rideshare strikes coincide with an overall increase in the number of American workers involved in work stoppages. While this certainly isn’t the first time drivers have voiced their dissatisfaction, with both Lyft and Uber going public this spring and a vast field of Democratic presidential candidates touting their labor bona fides, the demonstrations are drawing new scrutiny.

Lee Carter is intimately familiar with both the drivers’ grievances, and the political issues they raise. A Democratic lawmaker who represents Virginia’s 50th District in the state House of Delegates, he told New York that he began driving for Lyft a month and a half ago to compensate for the low pay. (Members of the House of Delegates receive $17,640 a year for their service in the state’s part-time legislature.) “The important thing to remember about rideshare platforms versus traditional taxis is that ride sharing platforms really put all of the risk and all of the upfront costs onto the drivers. So it’s our cars, our gas. It’s our insurance,” he said. “And we’ve got people that are becoming billionaires overnight off of these ideas that have never driven a single mile with a passenger. And that’s because of the hard work of drivers.”

Carter, who participated in Wednesday’s strike, said he usually drives late at night, when he’s finished with tasks for his re-election campaign. “For a lot of people, it’s not extra money on the side,” he noted. “For a lot of people, it’s their primary job, driving for these rideshare companies. They’re doing it for 50, 60 hours a week.”

Some drivers have to work even longer than that to make ends meet. The Guardian reported on Tuesday that some Uber drivers in San Francisco have begun sleeping in their cars; high rents have pushed them out of the city and forced them into longer commutes, and they must keep hectic work schedules to make ends meet. “To make a living and survive in San Francisco, we have to drive 70 or 80 hours per week,” one driver, Sultan Arifi, told the news outlet. “Living expenses keep going up, and Uber keeps decreasing how much they pay drivers.”

When you pull up your app and call an Uber, a full third of the fee you pay goes to Uber and not to your driver, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute reported in 2018. Once Uber takes its cut, driver compensation averages around $11.77 an hour – but from there, the sum continues to shrink. Take out Social Security and Medicare taxes, and EPI found that hourly pay is around $10.87. EPI defined that sum as discretionary income, so it’s an assumption, really, that drivers “do not provide themselves the equivalent of the health and retirement benefits or social insurance programs.” If they do, EPI estimates that they earn a real wage of $9.21 an hour.

App drivers in New York City make more, but only because the City Council passed a pay raise in 2018. As Vox noted at the time, the law closes a loophole that companies like Uber and Lyft have long been able to exploit. By classifying drivers as contractors instead of employees, companies like Uber and Lyft are able to skirt minimum wage laws. (Uber has consistently claimed that its drivers are self-employed – an argument that’s been more successful in the U.S. than it has in Europe.) Despite the pay raise, New York City drivers say they’re still struggling to make a living.

Uber and Lyft, meanwhile, are navigating delicate moments in their corporate lifespans. Uber is scheduled to begin publicly trading this week, a move that will make top shareholders very wealthy – though, as Reuters previously reported, the rideshare company admitted in its IPO filing that it may never turn a profit. Lyft faces its own struggles. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that in its first quarter as a publicly-traded company, Lyft “posted a loss of $1.14 billion for the first quarter, compared with a loss of $234.3 million in the same period a year earlier.”

The complaints of rideshare drivers highlight both the limitations of Silicon Valley’s industry-wide conflation of innovation with progress, and the high-profile support that Uber, and other rideshare companies, have received from ostensibly liberal sources. HuffPost founder Arianna Huffington joined Uber’s board of directors in 2016, and the company is also one of many Silicon Valley corporations to draw high-profile veterans of the Obama administration. David Plouffe briefly worked for Uber. Lyft hired former Obama transportation secretary Anthony Foxx in 2018, and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama adviser, joined the company’s board in 2017. In her memoir Jarrett said that Lyft’s founders are “shrewd businessmen” who “also believe in diversity as a strength. They believe in a social conscience and a commitment to our cities.”

But Uber and Lyft may not be able to count on such a comfortable relationship with the administration of the next Democratic president – whoever they are, whenever they take office. On Wednesday, several Democratic presidential candidates expressed their solidarity with Uber and Lyft drivers.

Uber is not a poor company. It paid its top five executives $143 million in compensation last year, including $45 million to its CEO.

So why are Uber drivers struggling to put food on the table?

I stand with striking Uber and Lyft drivers today. The greed has got to end. pic.twitter.com/4esvwHApjX

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 8, 2019

.@Uber and @lyft executives are preparing to cash in by taking their companies public, so they’re squeezing their drivers and slashing their pay. The drivers are fighting for living wages and better working conditions—and I stand with them.https://t.co/pjWvOCLHYC

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 30, 2019

I support Uber and Lyft drivers in their strike today as they say enough to unfair wages and mistreatment. Let’s all demand livable wages, better working conditions and job security for drivers and workers across the country.

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) May 8, 2019

Mother Jones reported on Wednesday that the campaigns of Andrew Yang, Eric Swalwell, Cory Booker, Tim Ryan, and Kristen Gillibrand would not cross picket lines. Uber, Lyft, Juno, and Via may not want to admit their drivers are workers, but the next occupant of the White House might disagree.

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The post Global Drivers’ Strike Shows Tide May Be Shifting for Uber and Lyft appeared first on Gyrlversion.

from WordPress http://www.gyrlversion.net/global-drivers-strike-shows-tide-may-be-shifting-for-uber-and-lyft/

[un-enfant-immature]

Uber and Lyft drivers are striking ahead of Uber’s IPO

With Uber expected to make its debut on the public market by Friday, May 10, on-demand ride-hailing drivers are planning to strike on Wednesday. The New York Taxi Workers Association is calling on U.S.-based drivers to stand in solidarity with drivers in London and log off from both Uber and Lyft on May 8 between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.

STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE! We are calling on all people of good conscience in NYC to log off of the apps in 7 AM to 9 AM Wednesday, May 8th to support our strike. Don't use Uber, don't use Lyft . Log off of all the apps! Support app drivers demanding job security and livable incomes!

— NY Taxi Workers (@NYTWA) May 3, 2019

“In the IPO filing, Uber said drivers will only get more dissatisfied because they plan to cut our pay and stop incentives,” NYTWA member Sonam Lama said in a press release. “We don’t want our wages to stay just minimum.  We want Uber to answer to us, not to investors. The gig economy is all about exploiting workers by taking away our rights. It has to stop. Uber is the worst actor in the gig economy.”

In a statement to TechCrunch, an Uber spokesperson said drivers are at the core of its service.

“Drivers are at the heart of our service─we can’t succeed without them─and thousands of people come into work at Uber every day focused on how to make their experience better, on and off the road,” the spokesperson said. “Whether it’s more consistent earnings, stronger insurance protections or fully-funded four-year degrees for drivers or their families, we’ll continue working to improve the experience for and with drivers.”

When Lyft went public, “it was a sad day,” Gig Workers Rising organizer Shona Clarkson told TechCrunch last month.

“It’s hard to see this company making tons of money when you have insecure housing or aren’t sure you can make rent or pay medical bills,” she said.

In response, Lyft drivers went on strike in San Francisco and San Diego. While some drivers want to be W-2 employees and others don’t mind being 1099 independent contractors, these drivers are united around wanting higher wages, transparent policies around wages, tips, fare breakdowns and mileage rates, benefits and a voice, Clarkson said.

“Lyft drivers’ hourly earnings have increased over the last two years, and they have earned more than $10B on the Lyft platform,” a Lyft spokesperson told TechCrunch. “Over 75 percent drive less than 10 hours a week to supplement their existing jobs. On average, Lyft drivers earn over $20 per hour. We know that access to flexible, extra income makes a big difference for millions of people, and we’re constantly working to improve how we can best serve our driver community.”

As part of their respective IPOs, both Uber and Lyft offered some drivers bonuses but pale in comparison to what executives will walk away with. Lyft, for example, offered some drivers up to a one-time bonus of $10,000. Similarly, Uber offered some drivers a bonus up to $10,000.

“Drivers I know who were offered that deal from Lyft in lead up to IPO were incredibly insulted and angry about it,” Clarkson said. “Both companies just do a lot of PR work to make it seem like they’re treating drivers well.”

Uber is pricing its IPO between $44 to $50 a share, seeking a valuation up to $84 billion. Lyft set a range of $62 to $68 for its IPO, seeking to raise up to $2.1 billion. Since its debut on the NASDAQ, Lyft’s stock has suffered after skyrocketing nearly 10 percent on day one. Lyft is currently trading at around $60 per share.

[baillieslf-blog]

Uber和Lyft的隐痛：司机大面积“停摆”困局难破

//www.smucdn.com/smu0/o.js

1、联合罢工，要求加薪的司机越来越多

据路透社等多家外媒报道，近日大约有八个美国城市的Uber和Lyft司机，为了要求其改善工资和工作待遇，正计划在5月8日联合停止提供网约车（拼车）服务。据纽约出租车公会组织(NYTWA)的负责人称，在洛杉矶大约4200名网约车司机将联合停止在Uber和Lyft平台上接单。

目前，旧金山、芝加哥、洛杉矶、圣地亚哥、费城和华盛顿特区的很多司机们也加入了这一行列。纽约出租车公会组织表示，司机要求工作保障、稳定收入以及对网约车公司从车费中收取的费用设置一定上限。

尽管Uber计划在下个月首次公开募股，可能会将部分平台司机会拥有一定的“资产”，但这些奖励对于更多司机来说并不“实惠”，因为他们所获得的利益从目前来看依旧微薄。“我们提供最基础的服务，但Uber和Lyft的高管和投资人却是受益的人，”一位常在…

[shirlleycoyle]

Is Congestion Pricing the New Sweeping Regulation We Need?

“Tax the rich, not the poor!”

“No more tax on drivers’ backs!”

“No more suicides! No more bankruptcy! Governor Cuomo, show us mercy!”

It was Wednesday March 20, and over 200 taxi drivers and their families had descended upon New York’s capitol in Albany. They formed a boisterous motorcade, honked their horns while passersby took photos and videos. Then, they marched into the state capitol building and lined up along the building’s sprawling, ornate “Million-Dollar Staircase.”

They were there to protest congestion pricing that had gone into effect for taxi drivers starting in February. Congestion pricing, broadly, is a system that charges cars to enter city limits in hopes of limiting traffic. Per the rule, car services have to pay a $2.75 fee every time they enter and exit the area below 96th Street in Manhattan—where they see the majority of their business. However, ride-hailing services like Uber, Lyft, and Via lobbied to exempt themselves from that fee in situations where the customer requests a pool (even if no one else ends up joining the pool).

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), which organized the action, said that this congestion fee could not have come at a more vulnerable time for taxi drivers. “The drivers are fired up and they’re determined,” Bhairavi Desai, co-founder of the alliance, said in a phone call. “Both out of necessity because the existence of the tax really will push thousands of them out of work, but also just a sense of dignity—that you know that this poverty isn’t accidental nor of the drivers’ own making, but it’s a result of political machinations, primarily between the governor and Wall Street.”

But their fight is up against an even larger movement. Much like San Francisco and Los Angeles, New York has tried to implement forms of congestion pricing since the 1970s. Now that the state has a Democratic-majority in the state legislature, experts are saying congestion pricing could come to all of New York on April 1, when the new budget is decided.

What happens in New York could set a precedent for the rest of the country, which is undergoing several, simultaneous debates about sweeping reforms amid the progressive “blue wave” that characterizes the left in 2019, from the Green New Deal to Medicare for All. If implemented correctly, congestion pricing, which has already reached cities like London and Stockholm could upend traffic flow and curb carbon emissions while funding the crumbling subway infrastructure.

But congestion pricing also means we risk hurting the working class when we try to mitigate climate change by addressing transportation. Think of the Yellow Vest protests in France: the protests were instigated by a fuel tax law intended to combat climate change. However, working class people argued that the tax was regressive. The scope of the protests gradually expanded to more general societal frustrations—specifically, the fact that lawmakers only try to improve society by taxing the poor.

The protests make it clear that the stakes for congestion pricing are high: if the state isn’t careful to avoid the mistakes of its predecessors, we could alienate some of the most vulnerable people in our society and pose an undue burden on middle class people trying to get to get to their jobs.

What is congestion pricing?

Congestion pricing is a tax system that charges cars to enter the most congested parts of a city limits in hopes of limiting traffic. Cities that have implemented congestion pricing typically charge people more money for congestion-causing activities—like driving fuel-guzzling trucks, going to high-traffic areas in the heart of a city, or travelling during rush hour. Meanwhile, low-income individuals, emergency vehicles, or disability vehicles are typically exempt from these fees.

Congestion pricing is meant to address a few problems at once: climate change, urban infrastructure, and revenue gaps. Steering people away from emission-heavy cars and encouraging them to use public transportation system could help lower emissions within cities on a massive scale. Then, the money from the people who are paying the fee can be used to fund improvements, such as New York’s failing subway system, as Gov. Cuomo has proposed.

There’s also an indisputable need to severely limit the number of cars on roads. A huge part of our climate problem can be traced back to cars and trucks, which emit 7 gigatonnes of CO2 annually, accounting for 72 percent of all transportation emissions globally, according to the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change. That’s more than the emissions from rail, oil pipelines, and aviation, and sea-shipping combined.

How congestion pricing has worked so far

Major global centers like London, Stockholm, and Singapore have all experimented with congestion pricing. Stockholm, Sweden, enacted congestion pricing in 2007 after a six-month trial period in 2006. William Eimicke, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, told Motherboard in a phone call that Stockholm is largely a success story: congestion pricing targeted wealthier people, and it’s raised money to refurbish its public transit. But of course, Stockholm is very different than New York.

“[Stockholm] is a model, but it’s a model that has less relevance in New York because it’s so much smaller, it’s so much more homogenous, and the band between the inequality metric is very, very different,” Eimicke said. “You have a much more equal society on almost every level. That’s not all good, but in the case of something like transportation, it probably is good.”

“It has to be well designed and well managed, but nobody should be expecting to be zipping around.”

London, a closer comparison in terms of breadth and scale to New York, yields other lessons. Implemented in 2003, congestion pricing did bring the traffic down by 26 percent in the central part of the city in the first five years, according to the Centre for Public Impact, a nonprofit research organization funded by the Boston Consultant Group Foundation. It also reduced greenhouse emissions, and generated around $161 million in that span of time, funds which were then directed toward a more robust public transport system.

But London’s system wasn’t foolproof. Exempting ride hailing services from the tax, for example, backfired, and companies like Uber and Lyft led to a slow return to congested roads with 18,000 rides per day, according to city statistics. This not only crowded the streets, but also led to emptier public buses and bike lanes. The current mayor of London, however, has moved to now include for hire vehicles in the congestion pricing.

“I think the London approach illustrates two things that might sound oppositional: congestion pricing works but we shouldn’t have outsized expectations of it,” said Nicole Gelinas, a transportation researcher at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank in a phone interview with Motherboard. “It has to be well designed and well managed, but nobody should be expecting to be zipping around.”

And while the overall carbon emissions have gone down in all the case studies we have, a 2009 study from Rand, a nonprofit think tank, also found that the environmental benefits in the areas that are affected most by pollution and poor air quality had little to no improvement.

Several cities in China, such as Beijing and Hong Kong, have tried and failed to institute congestion pricing. Guo Dong, the Director of the Earth Institute China Initiative at Columbia University, told Motherboard in a phone call that congestion pricing has failed in China due to social attitudes about equity and fairness.

Image: Traffic jam in Beijing, from Facebook.

Guo told Motherboard in a phone call that people in China generally see congestion pricing as regressive when compared to, say, China’s license plate lottery and alternating-plate system. China’s license plate lottery caps the total number of cars that can be registered in a region, and does a lottery to determine who can get those plates. Its alternating plate system makes it so that only license plates ending in even and odd digits, respectively, can enter cities like Beijing on certain days.

“People [in China] are generally opposed to giving more authority, more money to the government, so that can invite corruption, or mismanagement, those types of things,” Guo said. “But with a lottery system, then it’s really being controlled for everyone. So I think people think they’re treated more fairly in that sense.”

However, Guo said that measures like a license plate lottery and an alternating-plate system may not fly in the United States, because they could be perceived by Americans as infringing on their personal freedom.

“But I think over in China, people take the fairness and equity over maybe a little bit less personal freedom,” Guo said. “They’d rather do that than give more money and create more administrative hustle. So I think in that sense, they’re a little bit more lenient to the draconian measures.”

What if congestion pricing comes to New York?

New York wants to be the first city in the country to have a well designed and well managed congestion pricing system, but the new proposed plan—which would target not just taxi drivers, but everyone—has garnered both support and fierce opposition.

Image: NY Taxi Workers Alliance/Facebook

Recently, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio joined forces and wrote a 10-Point Plan, which proposes using electronic tolling devices in Manhattan below 61st Street to charge vehicles during “peak travel hours.” It specifies that people with disabilities or “identifiable hardship” would be exempt from this charge.

Crucially, the 10-point plan does not define exactly what constitutes “identifiable hardship,” or specify exact figures on the fee and the times of peak travel hours. That’s up for New York state legislators to decide. But the question of who is exempt from congestion pricing will make or break the measure as a whole in New York. Depending on how these “hardships” are defined, the state could target the rich, or disproportionately target low-income individuals.

According to the 10-Point Plan, congestion pricing would be instituted, ideally, by December 2020. But the decision of who is exempt and who is not will, for the most part, be outlined by April 1 when New York passes the annual budget. After all, the number of people paying the congestion price dictates how much money the measure will raise for the state.

The 10-Point Plan also introduces other methods of raising money for the subway, like “consolidating redundant functions” within the MTA (this could possibly mean layoffs), and combating fare evasion without criminalizing it. But in the past, combating fare evasion without “criminalizing” it often still meant an increased police presence in low-income communities of color—which are among the more likely populations to not be able to afford subway fares and be over-policed. In other words, combating fare evasion could put vulnerable bodies at risk.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was previously against congestion pricing, and proposed raising a “millionaire tax” instead. When reached by Motherboard for comment, de Blasio’s press team said he has become an advocate of congestion pricing, and a key supporter in the fight, since there’s more support for the proposal. “Everyone knows, my ideal would have been a millionaires’ tax,” de Blasio said. “I’ve come to the conclusion that this moment there is not the support necessary for the millionaires’ tax. I hope there will be in the future.”

Danny Pearlstein, the director of policy and communications for the grassroots transit group Riders Alliance, told Motherboard that in a city like New York, congestion pricing makes a lot of sense. “In our view, congestion pricing is also fair,” he said. “Congestion pricing would primarily charge very wealthy people to fix the subway, because you’re talking about people who can afford to pay for parking in Manhattan.”

That’s no small win. New York City’s subway system is in dire straits, and according to the Office of the Governor, it’ll cost upwards of $22 billion in order to comprehensively improve the system. Subway tracks and tunnels around New York City are a century or more old, and falling apart. According to the New York Times, signal problems and train failures are twice as common as they were just 10 years ago, and 35 percent of all trips arrive late.

And as Pearlstein also noted that in New York, the highest income individuals tend to live in the heart of the city—the exact location where congestion pricing would take effect. He also said that low-income households and people of color disproportionately account for the people that rely on public transit in the city. Congestion pricing, he said, is a way of paying for the infrastructure improvements that will make public transportation more reliable for the people who need it most.

But critics say that’s not true. “You cannot put blinders on when it comes to whose behavior you’ll effect,” Richard Brodsky, a former New York state assemblyman and lawyer and a critic of the law, told Motherboard. Brodsky, who says the tax should not be passed without a proper traffic study, said that it will impact middle income people the most. “Twelve dollars a day will not make a different to a Goldman Sachs banker but it will to the nurse or firefighter from Queens.”

And according to the Rand study, if the revenue from congestion pricing is funneled toward everybody, instead of just lower income families, it will do little to solve for inequality. In fact, some people will be worse off than they were before. “These include people with no choice but to drive on congested routes with pricing in effect and those who may have to forgo important trips because they are too expensive,” the authors wrote.

Private vs. Public

Some of this biggest drawbacks in congestion pricing implementation across the world has manifested when private companies replace public infrastructure.

Eimicke told Motherboard that he supports congestion pricing wholeheartedly. “It seems like a no brainer to me,” Eimicke said. But he said the devil is in the details when it comes to congestion pricing. Its likelihood to succeed or fail depends on not just the exemptions, but the unintended consequences of limiting car-transportation.

He gave the example of people who need to use cars to travel into the city for work, or at least get to their nearest subway stop. What happens if you have to pay a congestion fee to get to that stop? The city could introduce more public buses, or van services. But the private sphere could step in and try to provide private van services.

That often leads to economic bias. For instance, consider when New York was planning for the L-train shutdown: a private, luxury car service The New L advertised “ultra-luxe commuter vans with professional chauffeurs.” It would have cost $155 per month—almost $30 above the cost of a monthly, unlimited-ride metro card.

Image: Screenshot from the New L website.

Eimicke said that we don’t have adequate regulations on the taxi and car industry to protect people from private enterprises. “We have the Taxi and Limousine Commission, and we also have the MTA, we have people with expertise who do [regulations],” Eimicke said. “Do we have regulations in place right now? The answer is absolutely not. We don’t even have the regulation in place to deal with the issue of cabs versus ride-share.”

Julia Salazar, a freshman state representative, told Motherboard the proposed plan will help her constituents in north Brooklyn, most of whom are working class and rely on public transport. But she also supports an exemption for yellow cabs, which are a mix of public and private, and that have struggled to survive with the influx of ride hailing companies. “We need to examine what the actual impact would be on yellow cab drivers,” she said in a phone call. “They’re really at a disadvantage over for hire vehicles.”

“It’s not nuclear fission—we can figure out who the people are, and we could figure out solutions.”

Desai from the NYWTA told Motherboard that the organization isn’t against state-wide congestion pricing. But the NYWTA thinks that cab and taxi drivers should be exempt. Instead, Desai said, the state should make up that money by taxing New York’s wealthiest residents. “We know that there’s a growing consciousness in America around economic inequality, and a lack of taxes on wealthy, Desai said. “But we don’t talk about overtaxation of the poor.”

Desai also said that if the state relies on taxing the taxi industry to raise money, the taxi industry will continue to deteriorate. Over time, as more drivers come off the road, these measures won’t raise as much money as the state anticipates.

It’s likely that New York state legislators have considered the fact revenue from congestion pricing could decrease over time. After all, that means congestion pricing is working. It’s designed to get cars off the road, meaning that over time, the state gets less money from cars paying those feeds.

Brodsky said that’s where the congestion pricing tax will run into the most trouble. People who can’t afford to pay the price will no longer have access to the city, which higher income people, for-hire vehicles and companies will. The revenue would be better off, he said, coming from a real estate tax, which is focused only on the wealthy.

“Supporters understand why this keeps running into trouble, it’s because public officials understanding this stuff,” he said. “This is public policy by concept. And by Twitter.”

*

Image: FacebookNY Taxi Workers Alliance/Facebook

People who drive for a living are among the most vulnerable work forces in the country. Desai told Motherboard that taxi drivers, for instance, are sometimes the victims of hate crimes and are at a high risk of being in poverty. If implemented poorly, congestion pricing could dramatically add to the burden that drivers already bear.

Shortly after the taxi drivers gathered in Albany, another driver, who drove for Lyft, killed himself. Desai told Motherboard that eight New York City taxi drivers committed suicide in 2018, which was devastating for the community. It’s clear that congestion pricing, for all of its potential to clear up our roads and air, will bear some of the responsibility for what happens to people driving in New York City—whether it’s taxi drivers, Uber drivers, or the everyday commuter.

It will also put to test the public transport infrastructure options—be it trains, buses, bikes or scooters—that officials are hoping to extend. “It’s not nuclear fission—we can figure out who the people are, and we could figure out solutions,” Eimicke said. “Some of them are 70 years old, or they’re 80 years old, and they’re not gonna ride bikes. Some of them have disabilities. So, bike is part of a solution, but not the whole solution. Vans are part of the solution, but they’re not the whole solution.”

That leaves a city like New York in relatively uncharted waters, wrestling with the global problem that the individual vehicle has become.

“In the 1970s we were worried about pollution and we always thought to fix that problem by fixing traffic, but we didn’t,” said Gelinas. “The biggest solution now is a more reliable transit system.”

Is Congestion Pricing the New Sweeping Regulation We Need? syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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'We're on the brink of utter collapse.' Yellow cabdrivers in New York struggle to stay alive as the pandemic rages on

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/were-on-the-brink-of-utter-collapse-yellow-cabdrivers-in-new-york-struggle-to-stay-alive-as-the-pandemic-rages-on/

'We're on the brink of utter collapse.' Yellow cabdrivers in New York struggle to stay alive as the pandemic rages on

“It’s a ghost town,” Tang remarks, as he drives through Chinatown.

Wain Chin, who has been driving a yellow cab since 1992, hasn’t worked since the pandemic hit New York. He says that the possibility of getting a few customers doesn’t warrant the risk of catching Covid-19 and potentially transmitting the disease to his wife and three kids.

On top of low ridership, many drivers stopped driving altogether for fear of catching the virus themselves.

“Drivers have been among the earliest people to be exposed to Covid,” says Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA). “We’ve lost so many drivers.”

For many of those who stopped driving, federal unemployment checks became the only source of income. When those ran out over the summer, some drivers, like Tang, had no option but to return to driving a taxi. At 36 years old, he thinks he’s less at risk of catching to the virus, yet the anxiety is there. In December, Tang says a driver who frequented the same Chinatown taxi stand as him died from complications of Covid-19.

An industry’s history of tragedy

For Desai and other members of the NYTWA, tragedy in the industry is all too familiar.

Traditionally, taxis in big cities require medallions — official licenses that allow yellow cabs exclusivity to pick up street hails. New medallions are either sold by the city or, more commonly, bought through auctions.

In 2018, nine for-hire drivers in New York died by suicide, crushed under the financial pressure of debts owed on their medallions. Three of them were yellow cab owner-drivers.

Kenny Chow, a 56-year-old yellow cab owner-driver, was among the casualties. His older brother, Richard Chow, is tormented by the memory of losing Kenny.

“I told him to fight the bankruptcy,” Chow says. “I didn’t know he’d make that decision. Very heartbreaking.”

Immigrants helping each other

The Chow brothers were close friends with Chin, connecting over their shared Burmese heritage and navigating the complexities of immigrant life together.

In an industry largely made up of immigrant workers, where language can be a barrier, going through medallion leasing documents can be a challenge. Chin often sits with new drivers to ensure they fully understand the documents they are signing and not fall into a debt trap.

A report in June 2020 found that immigrants in New York bared the brunt of the pandemic, with some organizations claiming that 75% of their clients were going hungry. Chow agrees, saying that he has no option but to buy cheap, sometimes expired food. Through the pandemic, he’s relied increasingly more on colleagues and the union for emotional support.

Since Kenny’s passing, Chin and Richard speak to each other every day, and often visit Carl Schurz Park on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the site where Kenny took his own life.

They lean on the railing looking over the East River and take a moment of silence. Richard prays that other drivers don’t suffer the same fate as his brother.

Debt drives the industry

Richard bought his own medallion in 2006 for $410,000. Fifteen years later, he still owes $390,000 on it. “Thousands of drivers are feeling the same … struggling.”

Tang acquired his father’s $530,000 medallion debt after his death, and today pays over $2,800 a month to his asset management firm, despite only being able to pick up a few passengers per shift.

When ride-sharing platforms such as Uber and Lyft entered the market in the early 2010s, the value of a taxi medallion plummeted.

An asset once valued at over a million dollars in 2013, medallions now go for anywhere between $75,000-$100,000, leaving drivers strapped with $450,000 in debt on average, according to Desai.

“For thousands of owner-drivers, medallions have been their access point to middle-class steady life,” says Desai, especially for immigrants. For many, that dream will never become a reality.

In 2013, yellow cabs made nearly half a million trips a day. In 2020, that number dropped to 50 – 60 thousand. But the yellow cab industry was already hemorrhaging trips pre-pandemic.

As unregulated vehicles for hire flooded the streets, investment-backed platforms such as Uber and Lyft undercut fares, able to absorb the loss. As riders flocked to these cheaper and more accessible taxis, yellow cabdrivers were left in the dust.

Attempts to catch up have been largely unsuccessful. A number of yellow cab ride-hailing apps have emerged in the past few years but have not been able to recapture customers.

Drivers fight for legislation

In response, the NYTWA has organized numerous demonstrations across New York in the hopes that legislation supporting the yellow cab industry will be passed. In September, hundreds of yellow cabdrivers halted traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, asking for debt forgiveness. Tang, Chow, and Chin have all been active in demonstrations with the NYTWA.

Protests culminated in a motorcade that traveled from New York to Washington, DC, picking up yellow cabdrivers from Maryland and Philadelphia. They parked themselves outside Capitol Hill, demanding that Congress pass the stimulus bill.

“We have people playing politics with our lives,” asserts Tang.

The NYTWA has put forward a proposal to New York City asking it to backstop loans that would be restructured to a maximum of $125,000 per medallion. Drivers would still be responsible for their loan payments and in the event of loan delinquency, the medallion would be repossessed and auctioned off.

The plan will cost $75 million over the course of 20 years for a city that has an annual budget of $92 billion.

New York City’s Comptroller Scott Stringer and New York Attorney General Letitia James have both voiced their support for the NYTWA’s proposal, along with high-profile politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Desai says that pre-pandemic, yellow cabdrivers were pretty close to victory. As Covid-19 swept the city and nation, attention shifted away from the plight of taxi drivers. However, Desai and other drivers are optimistic that they will finally get the legislative support they need.

“Through the quarantine, we’ve built a real sense of community,” Desai insists. She notes that union membership actually grew in 2020.

For Tang, unity is essential to victory. Despite being decades apart in age, he refers to Chin and Chow as his brothers. He first befriended them at Kenny Chow’s vigil in 2018 and since then, their bond has only strengthened.

“I do believe that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and I really do think that we can make changes when we get enough people together,” says Tang.

“We’re going to keep fighting for it. We’re going to keep making noise.”

[salmanadergalal]

Male Gaze of Women in Advertising: Visual Examination of An Uber Outdoors’ Ad in Egypt.

Introduction & Literature Review

 Gender has been a crucial matter of discussion all over the history of art, the riddle of whether women are being equally represented in paintings, films, ads... etc, in comparison to men has always been argued by many historians and theorists. Not only the fairness of representation that has been the subject of discussion, but also how women are being represented as objects in the context of a male field of vision or the Male Gaze. Griselda Pollock noted in her work on modernity and the spaces of femininity (1988) that there is a long tradition in art that female nudes are understood as of possession to the male artist. Similarly John Berger wrote “Men act women appear”.They both reflected upon how images of women are exclusively presented for male viewers.

  In her essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975), Laura Mulvey, British Feminist and Film Theorist, coined the term Male Gaze to the gendering of the spectator. She has drawn from Freud’s idea of scopophilia - the pleasure involved in looking at other people’s bodies as objects and argued that most film narratives do not only typically focus on a male protagonist, but also assume a male spectator (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001). Mulvey argues that Traditional Hollywood films present men as active, controlling subjects and treat women as passive objects of desire for men in both the story and in the audience.

  In the same essence, Mulvey’s psychoanalytic view of the gaze can be applied to advertisements that are directed at a male target audience. Sexual appeal has long been counted on by adverts to sell products. In some instances, sexuality becomes the only allure used in an ad for attention getting no matter how far it is from the selling service or the intended ad message. With a lesser extent than in western societies, women in Egyptian ads have been objectified in indirect ways that position them at the male power of gaze or represent them in a voyeuristic point of view to male viewers and that was apparent in how female models in Egypt used to have western features and perfect body shape.  In both cases, women as a part of the audience as well, are included to share POV of a male spectator in which they are supposed to feel pleased as subjects being looked at.

 After years of being raised among social norms that emphasize male domination over females, women in eastern societies subconsciously get used to perceive their self image in a male perspective in which they feel more safe. In a similar manner, some ads even those about women or created by women are still impacted by the male gaze somehow along the course of their life.

 The power of the gaze develops unplanned consequences (Manlove, 2007). The unplanned consequences can be identified not only through knowing the person’s looking intentions and position but also by becoming subliminally affected by the gaze. Jacques Derrida argued that the norm is always set up in opposition to that which is deemed abnormal and thus the category of the feminine is commonly understood as that which is not masculine (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001).

 Whereas in reality these distinctions are mostly blurred, in our daily life interactions male superiority and dominance often take place at levels of cultural, linguistic, social and cultural meanings and drawing from that the power of the gaze can be effective on the intellectual level rather than only in a voyeuristic sense. In other words, being backed up by social norms that empowers masculinity over femininity,  the male gaze can stereotype women and demean their role to an extent that frames how women think of themselves.

 I am using an Uber outdoor ad as an example to show how advertisers are subliminally affected by the male gaze even in addressing a feminine point view. In my opinion this ad unintentionally defied the conventions of looking, the same way the 1991 film Thelma and Louise defied the traditional formula of the gaze and it’s power relations by preseneting women’s gazes with agency. 

~ Source: Google

Theoretical Framework

 Uber Mother’s Day outdoors’ campaign on Al Mehwar, the ring road and 6th October bridge is supposedly showing how Uber’s service in Egypt has made Moms’ life easier by providing them the safest and best ride to wherever they are going. It enhanced it’s objective through drawing from real life social traditions that women encounter in Egypt and reflecting upon how Uber relatively helped unsaddle some of these social burdens.

  This paper will mainly examine how this ad visually operated to show a female gaze within a feminist social context (Mother’s Day), but the textual content accompanied with it might have inflicted a male gaze to a women-related dilemma. The theory used to examine the ad is the Jacques Lacan and Laura Mulvey’s“Gender Gaze”.

~The ad says “Since Uber came along, I spend way less time on the Ring Road”

Contextual Analysis

 Generally, the ad itself had nothing to do with the selling service Uber is offering in Egypt which is basically a safe and comfortable ride. The ads didn’t show any uniqueness or brand enhancement. The campaign called since “Uber came along in Egypt” has mainly depended on a series of outdoors in which the visual production has been clearly a secondary aspect of the campaign. All the campaign billboards had either a blurry or a black background of men or women at the back seat of a car (which is consequently an uber). To deliver it’s message, the campaign ads have depended on the slogan (“Since Uber Came Along in Egypt”)  and a caption that varied according to the situation- visually expressed on the billboard.

~The ad says “Since Uber Came along, my mom only calls me twice instead of ten when I go out “ 

 Drawing from the campaign’s slogan and captions, the objective is to show how Uber made transportation and commuting easier in Egypt. Though the ads haven’t stressed on Uber’s points of strengths with regard to the concerns people have always had regarding the safety of taking a taxi in Egypt.

 Amidst Careem’s feud, after firing its Managing Director in Egypt, Wael El Fakharany - one of Egypt’s sweetheart entrepreneurs- many Careem customers were disappointed in the company and it was expected from Uber to step in and seize Careem customers, learning a lesson from it’s US competitor Lyft that found Uber’s conflict the opportune moment to seize it’s customers after JFK airport protesters decided to boycott Uber rides because they believed that the ride-sharing app dropped it’s surge as a try profit from the (New York Taxi Workers Alliance) NYTWA’s demonstrations following Trump’s Muslim Ban.

 Instead it came out with an outdoors campaign that sparked significant backlash on social media.

~The ad says: “Since Uber came along, I escaped from driving my mother-in-law home 64 times” (Source: Ola Mohey Elden Facebook Account)

  As shown above, this billboard was the one to anger many of Uber clients. It says “I escaped from driving my mother-in-law home 64 times”. Among the series of (“Since Uber Came along”) billboards, this particular ad being released days before Mother’s Day in Egypt; wasn’t quite a clever idea. Egyptians might not be as religious as they claim to be and they might as well complain about some threadbare social norms, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t hold these unfavorable duties at high value. In eastern societies family bonds and relations are way tighter than they are in it’s western counterparts. We might covertly feel bothered about giving a relative a ride but we won’t like to either admit it publicly or be faced by it as a joke.

  I personally imagined Uber’s creative team to have met up and said let’s do something creative and equally funny to relate between Mother’s Day and Uber’s ride service and from there came the idea for this billboard without an understanding of either the customer perspectives or the market insight. Some brands have gone bold lately (Sunny Food Oil) depending on a similar reverse psychology strategy that offended women and it backfired, so why use it again?  

 What I found really interesting about this particular ad, is how the combination between the visual and the written have deviated from the ad’s intended gaze. Featuring a woman in a female related context, this ad was supposed to present a female gaze to the situation in hand which is giving your mother-in-law a ride home. We can reflect upon two scenarios in which this sentence is said by a man and/or a woman “I escaped from driving my mother-in-law home 64 times”; in both cases this sentence represents a gaze power over the (female) mother-in-law. If said by a man, this textual content strongly places the woman in a weaker position in which the (male) son-in-law is the superior and stronger party whom the woman commonly needs to be given a ride by him and judging by our social norms there is a great possibility that this sentence was said by a man because men especially relatives are always sought of as a sign of power and also safety that should always give girls a drive in our society. In this case, young women and ladies being brought up surrounded by such social traditions adds a male gaze to how they view the world.  

~One Twitter user (Noura Nader) about the ad (” It could simply have said Uber helped me drive my mother-in-law home safely instead of Escape”)

Source: Think Marketing

~One Facebook User on the ad (Reem Essam Sabry): “ Why is the poster suggesting that it’s an ad for a home for the elderely?, it could have been better if Uber says that it made it easier for Grand Moms to attend their grandchildren’s social events, with a picture of the lady booking a ride. Reem also asked “Releasing this ad during The Month of Mothers, seriously?”

Source: Think Marketing

 It’s less likely for this sentence to be said by a woman, because even if a woman feels the same discontent that a man might feel about giving his mother-in-law a ride, she won’t probably admit it as to not shake her image in front of her husband, which again places her under his male gaze. Another reason why I think many women got angered by this ad, is that some day they will eventually become mothers-in-law and they don’t want to be treated in the same demeaning way the ad did. In this sense, women responded to this image through identification with it ( Sturken and Cartwright,2001). 

 Visually examining the image of the lady on the billboard (supposedly mother in law), that’s clearly a female gaze. Her look and facial expressions collectively say a lot. For me it seems like she is so angry and menacing over the fact that her family ordered her what looks like a taxi at the end of the day from her own perspective, instead of they giving her a ride home. The look can also convey a sad and a lonely feeling of a mother-in-law living on her own and is becoming more sad that the few moments she spends with her family are becoming less because they don’t have to give her a ride home anymore thanks to Uber. 

 Furthermore, the camera had an important role in framing the woman’s look in a way that she won’t be looking directly at it which might suggest that she is looking at someone whom we can’t see and sharing gazes with him/her as if she’s reproaching her son or daughter who left her go home alone. Adding text to this female gaze has changed it’s concept and switched the woman’s role from being at the powerful position of looking and controlling the camera to being controlled by the male gaze power of the man and/or woman who said the sentence. 

Conclusion

 Regardless of Uber’s epic fail to deliver a campaign that respects and understands it’s audience, there are some key concepts that contributed to this ads failure; for a mother’s day celebration, that is aimed to honor the mother, Uber had to be appreciative towards the mother figure even more on this special day, instead of making a joke about escaping giving her a ride home. The campaign ad lacked expressive visuals and only depended on the textual content that was written in a font that can be barely seen by the naked eye especially for a street-hanging-ad. The caption accompanied with the picture has presented a very interesting aspect of how women can be objectified in ads not only in sexual or voyeurstic paradigms and also showed how adding a text can present a male gaze to a seemingly feminist situation, the same way the male director of Thelma and Louise (1991) presented feminism from a male gaze POV.

References

Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of looking. Oxford University Press, 2001.P 122:124, 130.

Website Links:

https://thinkmarketingmagazine.com/uber-egypt-billboard-ads-one-word-makes-difference/