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When I have reported black cab drivers misleading passengers, lying about pricing and regulations or bus drivers driving dangerously and being rude to everyone,
by sambe 9y ago
When I have reported black cab drivers misleading passengers, lying about pricing and regulations or bus drivers driving dangerously and being rude to everyone, TfL are totally uninterested. They give the impression that they know the scams operate and don't care. It's an interesting comparison with my Uber experience, which has been almost flawless and issues are usually fixed by Uber themselves promptly.
- iamben 9y agoLast time my (getting rather elderly) mother came to London I told her and her husband to get an Uber as it was easier than them standing in the rain trying to hail a cab. They flatly refused. They'd been told by a black cab driver the night before there was a 'strong possibility' they would get raped or robbed by 'foreign' drivers.
- Nursie 9y agoWhy not suggest one of London's myriad of other options, which don't have so much in the way of unethical baggage?
- raverbashing 9y agoThe tube is fine for the most part but it can be a drag going from the eastern parts of London to LHR directly (or to Paddington or Victoria)
- dx034 9y agoAddison Lee is a good alternative. Drivers tend to be a bit more professional, prices are not that much higher and cars are generally nice.
- crtasm 9y agoTheir previously voiced views on cyclists should be taken into account though. http://road.cc/content/news/56999-addison-lee-chairman-airs-his-opinion-london-cyclist-deaths http://road.cc/content/news/56999-addison-lee-chairman-airs-... The Keen Group have always been reliable for us (but could hold similar views for all I know)
- vizzah 9y agoYou can downvote, but I hate cyclists in cities, because many of them break road rules. They think of themselves as neither pedestrians, nor vehicles. When they drive on pavements, they presume being pedestrian and expect to be treated equally (even though they operate a large mass of steel, often with high speeds, enough to cause serious injuries). When they are on the road, they like to be pedestrians and cross traffic lights, when cars have stopped. Don't know why cyclists constantly show such a selfish attitude. I am not singling out London, as I witnesses similar behavior in many European countries.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoSo, the cyclists behave just like car drivers then ... /sorta-joking (FWIW I'm both and sometimes ride a motorbike or drive a van.)
- vayun 9y agoWhat is the problem with cyclists cross the road on a pedestrian crosswalk (with a reasonable speed of course)? In some European countries cyclists are actually forbidden to take direct left turn on the road and have to use pedestrian crosswalk for that.
- Nursie 9y agoThis is why cycle infrastructure, like one finds in Perth, WA is so good. In some places there is a separate cycle-road distinct from both pavement and road, in others there are cycle tracks running alongside train tracks, away from cars and pedestrians. It works really well, because someone bothered to plan.
- lmm 9y ago
- cjsuk 9y agoI'd not sure I'd call the AL drivers professional. A number of them are complete psychopaths around the Heathrow area.
- Nursie 9y agoThere are lots of private hire car firms, Addison Lee springs to mind immediately. And practically every street in the city has a minicab firm...
- arethuza 9y agoNot that I use Uber (not really necessary in Edinburgh and they don't operate where I live) - but one of the problems with there being so many taxi and minicab firms is how do you tell which ones are actually any good when traveling to a new location? I've had great experiences with taxis, but also appalling ones... At least Uber seemed to be trying to solve that problem - shame they decided to solve a real problem while being a shamelessly immoral company.
- Nursie 9y agoI agree to some extent. Having a single app you can open, regardless of what city or even country you're in, and knowing you'll get a good service at a good price, that's a great idea! The behaviour of Uber has been terrible, and it's a shame they don't operate much more like a passenger->service matching system with ratings, rather that operating their own fleet kinda-sorta-maybe (but they're all self-employed!)
- arethuza 9y agoIt would be kind of neat to have a standard platform for location based services.... Edit: Not just discovery, but transactions as well
- isostatic 9y agoMini cab drivers are often self employed, they pay a "radio fee" for the booking office, provide their own vehicle, licensing etc, have fares set centrally, and they keep their fares (and take cash to avoid paying tax). How is uber any different?
- Nursie 9y ago
- martinald 9y agoWill be resolved with crossrail next year, thankfully.
- cm2187 9y agoI'd rather be raped that do another ride in a black cab. These things have no suspension whatsoever, and are louder than a truck (which matters a lot if you are trying to sleep in a quiet street). Uber minicabs tend to drive a Toyota Prius which is way more comfortable and silent.
- KyeRussell 9y agoYou'd rather get raped? What a disgusting thoughtless comment.
- neverminder 9y agoHis comment is valid - black cabs are about as quiet and ergonomic as tractors.
- sctb 9y agoUnfortunately this doesn't meet the standards of civility for this site. Please make your point more thoughtfully. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- cjsuk 9y agoSame experience here. Nothing done about a virtual mugging where the cabbie had no idea where he was going, shouted at me and told me I was a cunt because I wasn’t stupid enough to fall for it and pulled him up on it. I rounded his fee down to the nearest £10 and told him to sue me. I’ve seen black cab drivers shouting “Uber scum” and spitting in the windows of Uber drivers before. This isn’t want I and my wife wanted to experience when you’re getting into an Uber literally after she’s had a hospital appointment and surgery. I’d rather fucking well walk than get in a black cab. This whole thing is sad. TfL is a total turd bag as well. Constantly getting overcharged on contactless so I have gone back to prepaid oyster. Customer services tell me I’m a dumbass but several people I know have the same problem on the same routes.
- jmkni 9y agoThis is where prepaid mastercards which sync up to an app on your phone come in really handy. You get a push notification instantly as soon as a contactless transaction goes through so you know right away if you've been ripped off.
- cjsuk 9y agoThat's not a bad idea actually and the prepaid card actually stays as real money, not "non refundable blue TFL smart card arbitrary number"
- jlebrech 9y agonot turning the meter on, or asking you to give them the postcode (ie they should know how to go to you area of town, that's part of their training)
- alex_duf 9y agoOr the card machine that is "broken"
- mittermayr 9y ago"You are required to have one that works...no?" — "Nah mate, this one literally just broke, they'll fix it when I'll return the cab later."
- notyourday 9y ago"Awesome mate, they can find me at that time"
- dominotw 9y agoone cabbie took me hostage till we found an ATM.
- danpalmer 9y agoI used an Uber for a 45 minute journey recently. The seatbelt didn't work. In the UK it's illegal to not wear a seatbelt, and it's against Uber's terms of service for me not to wear a seatbelt, and against their terms of service for the driver not to provide one. Uber didn't care, told me they would "talk to the driver". I'd have expected at least an acknowledgement that they endangered my safety, but no, no acknowledgement of any fault at all.
- kaishiro 9y agoEndangered your safety? Did someone force you into the vehicle?
- danpalmer 9y agoThe seatbelt broke 10 mins into the journey while we were on a motorway. It's illegal to stop on the motorway, and being left at the side of the road isn't exactly a great alternative.
- kaishiro 9y agoIn that case it was working when you sat down so it's not like the driver was trying to pull a fast one on you. What did you expect him to do? Like you said, he couldn't just pull over.
- danpalmer 9y agoSure, there wasn't a lot he could do right then, but Uber could have: - Acknowledged the situation. - Agreed that it was not right. - Committed to not using that vehicle until the issue was rectified (not that I'd necessarily trust them on this, but it would be good to say). - Could have refunded me or given me credit for the risk. I think in a perfect world, the driver would have stopped at the nearest safe place, attempted to fix the belt, and failing that another car would have been dispatched to pick us up and finish the journey, but I realise that's unlikely to happen in a service that cheap.
- fortythirteen 9y agoThe difference is that those companies haven't built software with the express purpose to operate extrajudicially. Being "innovative" doesn't mean that you have full reign to operate unethically.
- conanbatt 9y ago> Being "innovative" doesn't mean that you have full reign to operate unethically. You are right. Being "Government" means you have full reign to operate unethically. Do you believe that if a government comission said that Uber cabs are safer than taxi cabs, that they would ban taxis?
- fortythirteen 9y agoThey would a taxi company if they built software to allow their drivers to break the law.
- conanbatt 9y agoIf you truly believe that, you are naive. There is no reasonable situation that would make any government turn on its own cabs.
- fortythirteen 9y agoWhere are there government operated cabs?
- conanbatt 9y agoEverywhere. Tipically the gov' puts forth a guideline on license use and sells the licenses. In many markets, you cannot be a cab driver without dealing with purchasing a license through or related with the state, and then you have to abide by the state regulations. Only a few of the guidelines typically contrain options: having to paint all cars the same means that different car quality is masked from the user. Depending on the market, doing a complaint on a cab driver, it goes to the state and it goes nowhere, because the state does not fullfill quality control, etc. In Buenos Aires, the government is also providing an Uber-like app for taxi-cabs. I dont know the details of London, but most of the time, cabs are what they are because of the government, that has a fiduciary duty to the people they sold the licenses to.
- jads 9y agoHaving lived in London for several years, I have a special hatred of black cab drivers. I have never had a single good experience using a black cab, and very few of my friends do either. Complaints range from refusing to take a fare (which would've been four miles but crossed the river - cabby flatly said "I'm not going south of the river this late, I won't get any fares to come back") to deliberately taking long routes (I took a cab from Covent Garden to Islington once, when we were about to cross the river I told the cabby I'm a Londoner, not a tourist, and if you cross the river then I'm getting out). I really dislike Uber, but there's no question I'd rather use them in London than a black cab. This is one of those decisions that are likely to be fully justified, but will still suck for those who have come to rely on them.