Insufferable passengers on Lyft Line/UberPool?
 

This might be a case of getting what I pay for. I called Lyft Line from the front door of a large building and when I got in the car, the other passenger started to berate me.

"We were sitting in traffic on the side of this building for a long time, and if you hadn't been staring at your phone you could have just gotten in there," she scowled.

"I see," I replied, before turning my cheek and ignoring her for the rest of the ride.

The sides of the building are a "no stopping" zone (red curb, in San Francisco). The front of the building, where I had requested my pickup, is a "passenger loading" (white curb) zone. Either way, if the driver wanted to stop illegally to pick me up around the corner, he could have called me on the phone I was staring at.

Anybody else have similar experiences?

I’m afraid I wouldn’t have the patience and restraint you had and one of us (probably her) would have evacuated the car shortly. The Lyft driver might even have learned a few new vocabulary words.

Why on earth would you engage with some random stranger? Ignore them. Your deal is with Lyft and the driver.

OTOH, there are all kinds of losers on subways and buses and Line/Pool and the like are just a form of that.

I occasionally get someone who decides an UberPool is an appropriate place to hold a cellphone conversation. I start responding to what they're saying into the phone. That usually shuts them up pretty quickly.

Usually on my Pool/Line rides it's another person with little or no interaction, or a couple chatting (in the back) among themselves; sometimes, it's a friendly third person and we all have a nice time. Never had a group problem.