There's no point in denying that the majority of cab drivers were more rude and scammy 10 years ago. They were, and in some places they still are. But in my op

There's no point in denying that the majority of cab drivers were more rude and scammy 10 years ago. They were, and in some places they still are. But in my opinion, Uber was not even close to the top reason for the improvement you see. It was mobile navigation, more organized taxi companies, including internal rating systems and more often inspections, and job insecurity. Uber definitely helped with job insecurity. Personally I'd rather have a somewhat annoying driver that talks on hands-free the entire ride over a smiling quiet driver that can't make ends meet and his livelihood depends on a couple of ratings. There's a good compromise somewhere between the two ends but it's not like we weren't in the former end for a long time. Taxi licenses were extremely expensive, fares were extortionate and you got scammed immediately if you looked out of place.