6 ms·

yeah, but unless you're in a city like New York (possibly a handful of others) the wait is FOREVER. In Phoenix it was routine to have to wait half an hour or mo

yeah, but unless you're in a city like New York (possibly a handful of others) the wait is FOREVER. In Phoenix it was routine to have to wait half an hour or more. Same in SLC. It's awful. Uber and Lyft reduced the wait to a fraction of the time with better, quicker and cheaper service.

rando18423 10y ago
I don't disagree with you, but your statement is incomplete without acknowledging these were also illegal services.
- Moshe_Silnorin 10y ago
  Sure, but these are stupid laws.
  - rando18423 10y ago
    Wow, I forgot we set up our society so tech developers got to decide what kind of society we wanted. Laws requiring cabs to serve disadvantaged areas? Accept cash so people without credit could get around? Provide safe living spaces, up to code, for visitors from out of town? How disconnected from reality are you? Furthermore, what kind of precedent does flaunting legitimate laws set? Thankfully Austin was able to have some balls and not allow that shit to fly.
p4wnc6 10y ago
This complaint makes no sense to me. You just call the taxi company further in advance of when you need the ride. If you know it's always around a 30 minute wait, just call 45 minutes ahead of time and tell them the time you need picked up. Phoenix & SLC are also not cities in which people are likely to rely on on-demand ride sharing. Most people own their own car especially if they care about being able to determine exactly when they engage in transiting. Further, in all of the non-mega / non-already-has-developed-rapid-transit-system cities I've been in, apart from one single city (San Francisco), the wait time for Uber is on the order of the wait time for a taxi. The difference between needing to call or book ahead to avoid a 30 minute wait vs. a 15 minute wait is utterly irrelevant. The real reason why Uber succeeds in these markets is that they currently subsidize the rate paid to the drivers and thus compete on price. They also have way better marketing and do a good job of making people think the market for Uber rides is more liquid than the market for taxi rides (though in truth it's not more liquid except in dense areas). Uber is not profitable in these areas, and is just hoping it can subsidize the losses on most decentralized transit regions long enough to defeat regulatory issues, outlast competitors, and put pressure on taxi services. It's still quite a significant gamble.
- pyromine 10y ago
  I just logged in specifically to tell you that as a SLC resident without a car, I use lyft extensively. Similarly all my friends do as well, for the almost perfect example people use of preventing drunk driving. I'm already pretty strapped for cash, hence why I don't have a car but I utilize Uber & Lyft when I'm unable to get to my destination in a timely manner. I would not however get a taxi simply because I don't know the number to call, I don't know when they'll arrive at my house, and simply the entire taxi experience is just horrible.
  - salemh 10y ago
    When I used to use Taxi's in SLC (I am still a resident), I had to call two companies at a time, then wait 20 minutes for one to show up. The taxi cab drivers aren't FT like larger cities (according to a long-time dispatcher of Yellow Cab), so have (or had, this was a few years back) had preference of fares or shifts, skirting regulation. I now use Lyft (for pricing and the drivers), then Uber (if Lyft is unavailable).
  - p4wnc6 10y ago
    This just makes your comment lose all credibility to me, I'm afraid: > I would not however get a taxi simply because I don't know the number to call, I don't know when they'll arrive at my house, and simply the entire taxi experience is just horrible. You don't know the number? Really? If you have a mobile device from which to use Lyft, then getting the number is completely and entirely trivial. While there is some variability in taxi arrival time (just as there is with Lyft or Uber arrival time), taxis typically are no later or more difficult to estimate. You just tell them when the taxi should arrive and that's when it will be there. There are even many apps for tracking taxis on a map interface. Those apps mostly only work in large cities, but it's easy to see they will expand to many other cities, certainly a city of the size of SLC. You say "the entire taxi experience is just horrible" but your two biggest complaints are that you don't know the number (and apparently can't be bothered to look it up one time and add it to your contacts) and you don't know when they'll arrive (even though you tell them when to arrive, that's when they arrive, and their variability is not significantly different than Uber or Lyft variability). I'm not able to make any sense of this if it's intended to be a criticism of the taxi experience in SLC.
kchoudhu 10y ago
I've spent plenty of time waiting for my Uber as well: lots of "your car is 5 minutes away for 15 minutes". Uber isn't as brilliant as they want us to believe they are.
- jacalata 10y ago
  "Your car is five minutes away. It is currently on a freeway driving away from you at 50 miles per hour. Now it is six minutes away".
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

rando18423 10y ago

I don't disagree with you, but your statement is incomplete without acknowledging these were also illegal services.

Moshe_Silnorin 10y ago
Sure, but these are stupid laws.
- rando18423 10y ago
  Wow, I forgot we set up our society so tech developers got to decide what kind of society we wanted. Laws requiring cabs to serve disadvantaged areas? Accept cash so people without credit could get around? Provide safe living spaces, up to code, for visitors from out of town? How disconnected from reality are you? Furthermore, what kind of precedent does flaunting legitimate laws set? Thankfully Austin was able to have some balls and not allow that shit to fly.

p4wnc6 10y ago

This complaint makes no sense to me. You just call the taxi company further in advance of when you need the ride. If you know it's always around a 30 minute wait, just call 45 minutes ahead of time and tell them the time you need picked up. Phoenix & SLC are also not cities in which people are likely to rely on on-demand ride sharing. Most people own their own car especially if they care about being able to determine exactly when they engage in transiting. Further, in all of the non-mega / non-already-has-developed-rapid-transit-system cities I've been in, apart from one single city (San Francisco), the wait time for Uber is on the order of the wait time for a taxi. The difference between needing to call or book ahead to avoid a 30 minute wait vs. a 15 minute wait is utterly irrelevant. The real reason why Uber succeeds in these markets is that they currently subsidize the rate paid to the drivers and thus compete on price. They also have way better marketing and do a good job of making people think the market for Uber rides is more liquid than the market for taxi rides (though in truth it's not more liquid except in dense areas). Uber is not profitable in these areas, and is just hoping it can subsidize the losses on most decentralized transit regions long enough to defeat regulatory issues, outlast competitors, and put pressure on taxi services. It's still quite a significant gamble.

pyromine 10y ago
I just logged in specifically to tell you that as a SLC resident without a car, I use lyft extensively. Similarly all my friends do as well, for the almost perfect example people use of preventing drunk driving. I'm already pretty strapped for cash, hence why I don't have a car but I utilize Uber & Lyft when I'm unable to get to my destination in a timely manner. I would not however get a taxi simply because I don't know the number to call, I don't know when they'll arrive at my house, and simply the entire taxi experience is just horrible.
- salemh 10y ago
  When I used to use Taxi's in SLC (I am still a resident), I had to call two companies at a time, then wait 20 minutes for one to show up. The taxi cab drivers aren't FT like larger cities (according to a long-time dispatcher of Yellow Cab), so have (or had, this was a few years back) had preference of fares or shifts, skirting regulation. I now use Lyft (for pricing and the drivers), then Uber (if Lyft is unavailable).
- p4wnc6 10y ago
  This just makes your comment lose all credibility to me, I'm afraid: > I would not however get a taxi simply because I don't know the number to call, I don't know when they'll arrive at my house, and simply the entire taxi experience is just horrible. You don't know the number? Really? If you have a mobile device from which to use Lyft, then getting the number is completely and entirely trivial. While there is some variability in taxi arrival time (just as there is with Lyft or Uber arrival time), taxis typically are no later or more difficult to estimate. You just tell them when the taxi should arrive and that's when it will be there. There are even many apps for tracking taxis on a map interface. Those apps mostly only work in large cities, but it's easy to see they will expand to many other cities, certainly a city of the size of SLC. You say "the entire taxi experience is just horrible" but your two biggest complaints are that you don't know the number (and apparently can't be bothered to look it up one time and add it to your contacts) and you don't know when they'll arrive (even though you tell them when to arrive, that's when they arrive, and their variability is not significantly different than Uber or Lyft variability). I'm not able to make any sense of this if it's intended to be a criticism of the taxi experience in SLC.

kchoudhu 10y ago

I've spent plenty of time waiting for my Uber as well: lots of "your car is 5 minutes away for 15 minutes". Uber isn't as brilliant as they want us to believe they are.

jacalata 10y ago
"Your car is five minutes away. It is currently on a freeway driving away from you at 50 miles per hour. Now it is six minutes away".
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]