Nice Ride

How the other half lives? Uber aims to save you from taxis and shuttle youaround in style

Summon Uber, and this is your ride.
Photo courtesy of Uber
Uber is billed as “everyone’s personal driver.”
The app enables you to see the drivers available near you.
And then you get to watch as your driver gets close.

It’s not hard to pinpoint the worst part of going out on the town. Sure, it sucks going shoulder to shoulder with 30 other people as you try to get the bartender’s attention. And, yeah, the bouncers can be a bit, um, difficult every now and again.

But, hands down, the biggest annoyance has got to be hailing a cab come closing time as 400 other drunk people fight each other for a shot at getting home (or the after-party, R. Kelly style). Assuming there are cabs on the street to hail, that is.

Then, if the gods have smiled upon you, and the taxi has shuttled you to your final destination, you have to haggle with the driver over using a credit card because you ran out of cash ordering $7 Bud Lights. Look, man, you are legally obligated to take a credit card. This is America! Dey tuk er jerbs!

The rates are higher than most taxis, but you can order a ride before you leave the bar. A black sedan waits for you outside. You pay for quality — and convenience.

Sorry. What we’re trying to say is that getting around after a night out can be a hassle. And there’s always the risk of driving drunk, which is stupid and should never be done. But where there is life, there is wishful thinking.

Fortunately, there’s now a third option. (Well, fourth, if you count hitchhiking.) It’s called Uber, billed as “everyone’s personal driver.” Uber is an app-based driving service that enables any Android or iPhone user to summon a driver. Operations manager Will Zinsmeister says Uber has gone from a small startup to operating in more than 15 cities — including London and Paris.

“We started two years ago in San Francisco, and we’ve been able to scale quickly,” he says.

The rates are higher than most taxi services, but you can order a ride before you leave the bar. A black sedan waits for you outside while all the peasants wait for their yellow cabs. You pay for quality — and convenience.

The app allows you to see how many drivers are in your area, and a GPS tracker stays up as your selected driver comes to you. Your credit card is on file, so there’s no haggling over price or worrying about not having enough cash. What’s more, you get to rate your driver each time, and, in a fair twist, the driver gets to rate you. So don’t be a dick, you know?

According to Zinsmeister, drivers are independent contractors, and they can work as much or as little as they want. All are professionally licensed and personally vetted by Uber. For now, you can find most of the drivers in the downtown-Uptown-Park Cities corridor and out west in Arlington, but the company plans to expand to all areas of Dallas as quickly as possible.

We have yet to test Uber here in Dallas, but an esteemed colleague in Washington, D.C., has used the service several times and asserts that it is well worth the extra money. He said it was generally “more ballin’” than the typical taxi trip. Okay.

So now you can feel like a VIP for a few minutes after stumbling out of Renfield’s. Or arrive in style at Rio Room before you have to resort to begging to get in.

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Coworking News

New coworking space to open in Dallas' Oak Lawn neighborhood

Office Evolution

A coworking space is opening in Dallas in a central location: Office Evolution, a Louisville-based coworking chain, will open what a release says is a "state-of-the-art coworking space" at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. #360 in Dallas at the southeast corner of Lemmon Avenue.

No details on what makes it state-of-the-art, but construction is ongoing and an opening is anticipated in mid-October.

Office Evolution was founded in 2003 as a shared workspace-coworking environment, cultivated on the principles of "Ohana," the Hawaiian tradition that references family working toward a common goal. (The founder was from Hawaii.)

The company started out in Boulder, Colorado, then relocated its headquarters to Louisville. It's an affiliated brand of United Franchise Group, and is part of The Vast Coworking Group, which specializes in franchising within the coworking industry. All of their locations are franchised.

The Dallas location is owned by franchisee Michael Pickering, a Dallas native who runs a family-owned indoor soccer facility in Dallas. (There are two other Office Evolution locations in the DFW area in McKinney and Southlake, owned by different franchisees.)

They're describing the Dallas location at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. as "Turtle Creek," although its location at Oak Lawn and Lemmon really puts it at the epicenter of Oak Lawn. (To further complicate matters, the building previously and incorrectly described its address as "Uptown.")

It's a seven-story building in which the majority of tenants are doctor and medical offices.

Office Evolution rates include a coworking day pass for $25, plus "flex" office options starting at $200 a month for 20 hours, up to $550 a month for 80 hours.

Amenities of the building that are also accessible to Office Evolution customers include a front desk; a 1,000-square-foot fitness center; covered parking; and on-site security six days a week.

According to a spokesperson, Pickering and his team put $1.2 million into the renovation to transform the space, which occupies most of the fourth floor where it will span 9,240 square feet of space with 41 total offices — one of which is earmarked as an "on-demand office" for the professional on the go.

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