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I get the impression you live or spend most of your time in vibrant, perhaps wealthy neighborhoods like Williamsburg or just Manhattan. Your green cab story do

I get the impression you live or spend most of your time in vibrant, perhaps wealthy neighborhoods like Williamsburg or just Manhattan. Your green cab story doesn't pan out in most of North Brooklyn outside of Williamsburg, they are invisible because the market dictates that it's too poor for them to bother to look for rides. Then there are the wealthier areas like Cobble Hill and Park Slope and so on - I wouldn't expect to see green cabs in Flatbush or something.

dahdum 8y ago
I got the same impression. While I don't doubt the OP's sincerity, it sounds like a cliche story of privilege. IIRC, Uber/Lyft have shown objective data highlighting the improvements of service to disadvantaged communities and groups. Taxis aren't at risk of going away entirely any time soon, so the iconic experience should still be around.
a_tractor 8y ago
My actual complaint was that the service began to improve dramatically in brooklyn (including outside of the northside) with the introduction of green cabs, but then once Uber/Lyft arrived, it went downhill again. Maybe I should have clarified that when I say downhill, I mean to a point that was worse than I have ever known. So I don't really think it matters where my experience is from. It was bad 8 years ago, it got a lot better, then it got a lot worse, if you didn't sign up for Uber. Its not complicated. And yeah, the reason its hard to find cabs further out is because its too spread out. Areas further out than specific high traffic areas converging on the bridges into manhattan have and will always be a different story for cabs, yellow or green. Its ridiculously large and spread out, with very few active and high traffic avenues in between. It would be like a tree falling in the forest for a cab to be cruising 60th and 16th ave at 11pm on a thursday. You definitely were seeing green cabs ON Flatbush (down by 9th) though, which was an improvement. Uber/Lyft didnt solve that problem either, they just provided an app for the black cabs that were already there, a whole phone call away. Black cars never had surge pricing before Uber either, wonder what poor people think about that.

dahdum 8y ago

I got the same impression. While I don't doubt the OP's sincerity, it sounds like a cliche story of privilege. IIRC, Uber/Lyft have shown objective data highlighting the improvements of service to disadvantaged communities and groups. Taxis aren't at risk of going away entirely any time soon, so the iconic experience should still be around.

a_tractor 8y ago

My actual complaint was that the service began to improve dramatically in brooklyn (including outside of the northside) with the introduction of green cabs, but then once Uber/Lyft arrived, it went downhill again. Maybe I should have clarified that when I say downhill, I mean to a point that was worse than I have ever known. So I don't really think it matters where my experience is from. It was bad 8 years ago, it got a lot better, then it got a lot worse, if you didn't sign up for Uber. Its not complicated. And yeah, the reason its hard to find cabs further out is because its too spread out. Areas further out than specific high traffic areas converging on the bridges into manhattan have and will always be a different story for cabs, yellow or green. Its ridiculously large and spread out, with very few active and high traffic avenues in between. It would be like a tree falling in the forest for a cab to be cruising 60th and 16th ave at 11pm on a thursday. You definitely were seeing green cabs ON Flatbush (down by 9th) though, which was an improvement. Uber/Lyft didnt solve that problem either, they just provided an app for the black cabs that were already there, a whole phone call away. Black cars never had surge pricing before Uber either, wonder what poor people think about that.