I decided to call it a night at 10 pm. Quit while I’m ahead. I had such nice, interesting passengers. All 5⭐️. Happy New Year, everyone! Get home safe.

New Year’s Eve is supposedly the biggest night for driving. I enjoyed shuttling folks to Christmas parties, so I’m here for the good cheer. I’m happy to drop people off celebrations and let others do the picking up after midnight strikes.

Day 5 of no Lyft driving. We have a doctor’s appointment, a vet appointment, and a date to see The Last Jedi for the second time. It’s supposed to hit 50 degrees later, so tomorrow looks like a go. 🚗

Day 3 of no new Lyft Shifts. Freezing temperatures, snow and ice. Not even slightly tempted. One spinout (me or someone else and poof! A month’s earnings eaten up.

Lyft Is Like A Video Game, part 2: Normally on a Sunday morning, you wouldn’t see all these “Prime Time” aka surge areas. But we have light snow and freezing rain today. The Prime Time lures more drivers out to meet the demand. Me? No way. It’s just not worth it.

Lyft is like a video game, thanks to the Power Driver Bonus. If I get 4 more rides tonight, I’ll have enough Peak Hour rides for the first tier bonus. But I would still need 11 more total rides. I’d be tempted to drive all day tomorrow, just to level up.

Weekly report card! Nice comment and almost all 5⭐️ ratings. For one brief moment yesterday, my rating was 4.95 (which displays as 5⭐️). But it’s back down to 4.94, which rounds down to 4.9⭐️. NOT obsessing, though. Nope, not one bit.

Wicked pothole. The jolt knocked my iPhone off its holder. Front right tire was on its way to getting flat. I filled it with more air and accepted the Universe’s message that it was time to go home and wrap some Christmas presents.

(For those counting along at home, I skipped posts for Rides 492-562. I thought I’d be able to keep up with a post per ride, with all the downtime in between. Turns out, it’s very busy during the Christmas season! Not sure a post per ride is the right approach either.)

Ride #563. Early morning pickup. A young guy who does construction by day and bartending at night. He has two kids and another on the way. He still hasn’t gotten his Christmas tree and it’s Dec. 22nd. And just like that, my life feels less hectic. #lyftlifelessons

Gave my first Lyft Line ride tonight, just one hour after I went to a Line orientation at the Portland HQ. Both passengers were from SoCal and knew the Lyft Line drill. I picked up one, then the other, and then dropped them at their destinations. Not a big deal.

Speaking of the holiday spirit, the tips are better too! (Yesterday’s earnings/2 hours driving.)

I started with Lyft last January, so this is my first holiday season. It’s actually fun. Almost every passenger this past weekend was going to a Christmas party or to the airport for a trip to visit family. I usually dread holidays, but the spirit is catching. 🎄🤶🏻

Drat. They are bringing the Lyft Line option to Portland. That’s the “exciting news.” People can request a shared ride and pay less. Multiple pickups and dropoffs. I hear it is VERY unpopular with drivers elsewhere. I’m not wild about the idea. Has anyone ever used Lyft Line?

Headed back to Portland after a quick visit to NYC. I had been planning to take Lyft to the Newark airport so I could get the experience here, but the $75+tip cost was hard to justify over a $13 train+$3 subway. Looking forward to getting back behind the wheel. 🚗

Exciting news coming from Lyft? I RSVP’d for the info session. Very curious to find out what Lyft’s “newest feature” is.

The good news in the Friday report card is that my rating is back up to 4.94. I asked Lyft to review it because I couldn’t understand why I had dropped so far. They told that no one had left negative comments and they would exclude a couple of the low ratings.

Friday report card. Sigh. Drivers have no control over the cost of a ride.

In NYC for a quick visit, and I’m traveling old school. There’s a meter and everything. I would have taken Lyft, but the wait would be at least 10 minutes and I couldn’t figure out the pickup location in Penn Stafion.

Rides #490, #491. Sometimes I’m a fount of recommendations that surprise. The couple visiting from Colorado got my glowing review of karaoke favorite @voiceboxpdx’s new Denver location. The young woman with foot troubles got the name of my holistic podiatrist.

I must be doing something right today. 5 out of 6 passengers tipped me, even on the short rides. 💃🎉😇

Speaking of ratings… did you know that Lyft drivers must keep their average above 4.6? If you give your driver 4⭐️, Lyft interprets this as a failing grade. It’s counter-intuitive; we think 4 out of 5 is good. Give 5⭐️ to any driver you’d be willing to ride with again.

**Ride #488, 489. ** Basic short rides downtown to Starbucks, Storables. Unremarkable trips = 5⭐️ passengers.

Last week’s earnings details: $389, 44 rides, 30 hours logged into the app. $8.84 per ride. I’ll do some more numbers crunching to determine how much time was actually driving. (Lyft gives minutes but not totals.) You can how the per-ride income can fluctuate wildly here:

Tipping rideshare drivers is a subject I need more than 280 characters to cover. I always tip, so I was surprised that more than half of my passengers don’t. To be clear, tips have nothing to do with the passenger ratings I give. I don’t even find out about tips until later.

Ride #487. A nice couple from LA, bound for the train station. They were running quite late. I knew they probably wouldn’t get good seats together, so I gave them my tip about going to the bistro car and sitting in the cafe. And they gave me a tip too! 5⭐️

The conclusion of our story: I picked up a guy who had dropped off a rental car and needed to get back to Vancouver, Washington. A completely unremarkable trip in every way. And my last time waiting in the PDX lot!

On my way to pick up my passenger. I’ll give you the details later. Fingers crossed.

Passed the two-hour mark waiting in the Lyft airport queue. Thank goodness I’m doing this for science.

One of the fun things about driving for Lyft: you never know what the day will bring. The ride might end up being worth the wait. #lyftlifelessons

Ride #486. Yesterday it finally happened. Portland is like a village sometimes. I should have figured that eventually I’d pick up someone who knows me from my non-Lyft life. “Are you Jean from @AppCamp4Girls?” Great passenger whom I met at a conference two years ago. 5⭐️

Update. I’ve moved up 4 places in 44 mins.🤦‍♀️ There are likely more drivers dropping off at this hour and who then get rematched with an arriving passenger. It’s tough on those who wait here, but everyone knows the Lyft system, which reduces waiting time for our passengers.

Ride #484, 485 Dropped a passenger off at Union Station for his 1st time on the PDX-SEA train. I love train travel and take that train all the time. I also love sharing my train tips! I also got matched with an arriving passenger. Both 5⭐️ for taking the train. 🚂

Update: I’m #11 after 50 minutes. That’s about 4 minutes per spot. In other words, I’ll be here for another 45 minutes if I wait. I’m getting microblogging tasks done during this wait so I am not frustrated missing those surges back in the city. #birdinhand #lyftlifelessons

Early on I swore off the holding lot because of the ridiculously long waits for a ride. But there are advantages. There’s a restroom for drivers. I can sit and catch up on this microblog (yes, I’m like 20 rides behind!) in a quiet place knowing that eventually I will get a ride.

I’m at the airport after an early morning dropoff. I didn’t get immediately rematched with an arriving passenger, so I decided to take a chance in the taxi/rideshare holding lot queue. I started at #24. This could easily take an hour.

Ride #479, 480, 481. Routine rides: Pearl District, Airport, Wayside Brewing., Rose City neighborhood. Nice people and all 5⭐️ passengers.

Ride #478. Some people keep you waiting. That’s OK. Lyft has you wait 5 mins. before canceling. You get paid (a tiny amount) for the waiting. I don’t stress over it.

Some people keep you waiting on a one-lane street in a busy part of town. That is not OK. 4⭐️

Ride #477. I usually don’t like it when someone talks on their phone the whole ride. But today was this passenger’s birthday and she was making plans for her big day. 🎂 5⭐️ for you.

Ride #476. Pleasant airport ride. Woman on her way to Seattle for the day. A great way to start the day, even if I didn’t get a rematch ping for a pickup that early. 5⭐️ nice passenger.

Friday is Lyft report card day. My ratings have been dropping the last month, from 4.99 a month ago to 4.84. This is like having a B- in school and I hate it. I probably should meditate on my obsession with getting good grades. #lyftlifelessons

Rides #473, #474, #475. Transporting people to do fun things in Portland is always fun for me too. Blazers vs. Bucs, Brew Lights at the Zoo, and Luc Lac Vietnamese Kitchen. Cheerful passengers are 5⭐️ passengers.

Ride #472. Visitors from London going to the other side of town during rush hour. Waze takes us on a circuitous route through beautiful neighborhoods with lots of Christmas lights. It’s a pleasure driving passengers who enjoy the ride = 5⭐️.

Ride #471. A friendly 20-something woman from the Midwest talks about moving back to Chicago for a better job market, while applying all her makeup using the passenger side mirror. Entertaining and no makeup spills = 5⭐️ passenger.

If you live in a city known as Bridgetown, you’re going to get stuck waiting for a boat once in a while. But the real enemy of the Lyft driver is a long, long, slow train that completely throws off your ETA.

Ride #470. Quick trip downtown. Destination is on a busy bus route with no legal stopping. I suggest an alternative drop off spot. Passenger: “Great! I don’t like that busy street either. It’s a crazy rush to jump out of the car.” Being sensible and flexible = 5⭐️.

Ride #469. Passenger headed downtown to catch the Bolt bus to Seattle. Nice despite the fact she was running late = 5⭐️. I’ve heard stories of Lyft drivers who’ve driven passengers to Seattle. It wouldn’t be worth it for me. I always take the train myself.

When I started in January, I said I’d do 100 rides and see how I liked it. Now I’m almost at 500. I see lots of drivers on the discussion boards who have 1000s. I’ve seen one with 10,000+. I’m pretty sure the self-driving car will be a thing before I get to that point.

Ride #467 and #468. One passenger to the airport, and then an immediate “rematch” to pick up an arriving passenger. It’s like winning a very modest lottery, when you don’t have to wait an hour in the holding lot. Bonus: both passengers were delightful 5 ⭐️ people.

Ride #466. A straightforward morning rush drive downtown becomes a headache-inducing stress test when the passenger decides to take over navigation and dictate each turn, like a human version of Waze. I rated them 3 stars, which means we won’t be matched again.

Got up at 5:30 am to catch some early rides and checked the local news. A semi-truck turned over on the highway in downtown Portland. I-5 was closed until further notice. In related news, I went back to bed.