This Startup Is Flying People Across Manhattan to Avoid Pope Traffic
It’s one expensive sort of taxi ride, but it might be worth it.
Blade: it’s like Uber, but for helicopters. With investments from the likes of Google executive Eric Schmidt to the tune of $25 million, according Business Insider, the company may become the go-to taxi service of the rich and busy. With Pope-a-palooza hitting New York City this week alongside the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), it looks like Blade’s time has come—if well-heeled New Yorkers think it’s worth the cost.
Business Insider reported that Friday will be a bad day to even let your dog fart in Manhattan due to security-related traffic issues from the Pope’s visit and the UNGA. To seek a Blade chopper’s magical traffic-hopping service, you need the service’s app and $95. That’s for a ride around the southern end of Manhattan that BI reported “takes between 5 and 8 minutes.”
As cool as it would be to look up from your apartment balcony and say, ‘hey, that’s my ride’ as a tether drops from a hovering Blade ride, sadly, Blade doesn’t come to you. BI reported Blade users will “depart and arrive from the West Side Heliport on Manhattan’s West Side and the East Side Heliport at East 34th Street and FDR Drive” and travel times are between 7:45 and 10 in the morning and from 5 to 7 later that day.
Hopefully some who can’t see tossing almost $100 at what admittedly sounds like a kick-ass way to get to work will be able to work from home — as long as work is watching cool drone videos of sharks all day.
Photos by Ditto/Image Source
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