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Taxi cabs pre-Uber were awful, at least in the 3 cities I used them most (NYC, Boston, Vegas). Dirty cars and often unmaintained. Regularly taken in circuitous

Taxi cabs pre-Uber were awful, at least in the 3 cities I used them most (NYC, Boston, Vegas). Dirty cars and often unmaintained. Regularly taken in circuitous routes to raise the meter charge. “Broken” credit card machine. Very difficult to find a taxi if you weren’t in popular areas. Calling a dispatcher for a taxi only to wait an hour and have them not show up. Having apps solved all of the above problems. I would give 0% chance of any similar improvements under the monopolistic medallion system that exists in the old regime. Uber forced innovation that was so much better the politicians folded despite intense lobbying from the old hands.

marcinzm 4y ago
That however is why they were cheaper. It seems, from the article, people don't actually want to pay the premium for that better level of service.
- uxp100 4y ago
  Which was cheaper? In my experience, in addition to being much worse in many ways (love to be called and told my cab driver is ready to pick me up when I am already boarded and sitting in a plane, after the dispatcher repeatedly told me they were 10 minutes away for an hour, and then I managed to just street hail a cab at 5 am) cabs were also about 50% more expensive. However, my local cab company got an app, it’s a piece of shit, but it shows where the cab is in a map as it comes to you, which really was the killer feature for Uber/Lyft for me. So good riddance Uber, you served a purpose for a time, but normal cabs stepped up their game just a little bit, and I have basically negative loyalty to you.
  - marcinzm 4y ago
    In NYC the call taxi companies were cheaper than uber/lyft even in the prime discount days of those apps. Of course the user experience was much worse.
    - vkou 4y ago
      In NYC my user experience with Lyft has been much worse than taxis. Cost more, longer waits, cherry on top of a Lyft driver waiting five minutes on the other side of a long block away from pickup, and canceling the ride because I allegedly refused to show up. That I had to talk to CS to reverse the charge with. I took taxis for the rest of my time in NYC, and I can't see any reason not to keep doing so.
- ghaff 4y ago
  >people don't actually want to pay the premium for that better level of service See air travel in general.
  - logifail 4y ago
    >>people don't actually want to pay the premium for that better level of service > See air travel in general. At least in Europe, currently having a provider get you from A to B as per your booking is the key, "premium" / "better level of service" is completely irrelevant. I'm back to booking everything as cheap as possible. If it's all going to go wrong, I want to have paid peanuts for it so I can just walk away and not bother having to try and claim anything back.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      I admittedly do relatively few short-haul flights. With some exceptions, 5 hours is about the floor so I will pay for more comfort/relaxation.
      - Spivak 4y ago
        Paying more for a better seat makes sense, paying more for a better airline really doesn’t unless you’re rich af or a business traveler and want double xl super platinum diamond plus premium status.
        logifail 4y ago
        > Paying more for a better seat makes sense We'll need a working definition of "better"... Intra-Europe you're going to have to look long and hard to spot the difference between the "business class" seat at the front of the aircraft and the cheaper seats further back. You will (probably) get an inch or two extra legroom, the middle seat next to you will likely be blocked so there's more personal space, and you'll get something to eat and drink. Whether that's really worth spending a few hundred $$$/€€€/£££ extra is between you and your wallet.
      - 4y ago
johnisgood 4y ago
In Eastern Europe there is no Uber nor Lyft. Waiting time is 2-10 minutes on average in a fairly large city. Cars are definitely not dirty nor unmaintained, they have the reputation of having cars that are almost new, and so forth. Prices have increased of course.
- cavisne 4y ago
  what would be a tourists experience getting in such a taxi if they werent local? For me this was the biggest game changer of Uber.
- DeathArrow 4y ago
  It depends on the country. In my country we have Uber and Bolt and we had other players which withdrew. But most people still prefer taxis as they are cheaper and better regulated by laws.
pessimizer 4y ago
> Very difficult to find a taxi if you weren’t in popular areas. Yes, now it's impossible to find a taxi anywhere unless you have a smartphone and an Uber/Lyft account. I miss the days when I didn't have to have a lifelong relationship with my cab.
vtbassmatt 4y ago
> Very difficult to find a taxi if you weren’t in popular areas. Calling a dispatcher for a taxi only to wait an hour and have them not show up. Funny timing. I just attended a wedding where the hotel was in Annapolis, Maryland, and the venue was about 5 miles outside Annapolis. The couple had recommended using Lyft due to limited parking, and had even given everyone a voucher to offset the cost. Getting from hotel -> venue at 4pm was no problem at all. We started trying to get a return ride at a few minutes before 10pm. First the app took about 4 minutes to match us to a driver, then rapidly cycled through a handful of drivers before ensuring us that our driver was 11 minutes away. For the next 20 minutes, that driver seemed to patrol up and down a street near downtown, with his ETA bouncing between 10-12 minutes. My guess is he accidentally accepted my "bad" (outside of downtown) ride and was hoping I'd cancel? I didn't, and he finally did. The app spins for a few minutes and then tells us someone is 15 minutes away. This person calls me and asks where I'm going, specifically am I going to DC. I answer that I'm not, I'm headed to downtown Annapolis, and he says he'll be right there. He made 3-4 minutes of progress toward us, then the app abruptly cycled through two more drivers. After another few minutes, I guess another driver cancelled on us, leaving the app to spin for several minutes unsuccessfully. At this point I cancelled the ride and was about to call a traditional cab. It was 10:45, the wedding had ended at 10:30, and it was starting to rain. Luckily, another couple at the wedding had correctly predicted that we wouldn't be able to get a ride back downtown. They had gotten a three-row SUV ("Lyft XL" or something) to get to the wedding, then gotten contact details from the driver so they could privately hail him after the wedding. Assuming we weren't too particular about obeying seatbelt laws, they had plenty of space for us. I'm not sure why people think the ride-"sharing" services have solved so many problems. I hope to never have to do business with these apps again.

marcinzm 4y ago

That however is why they were cheaper. It seems, from the article, people don't actually want to pay the premium for that better level of service.

uxp100 4y ago
Which was cheaper? In my experience, in addition to being much worse in many ways (love to be called and told my cab driver is ready to pick me up when I am already boarded and sitting in a plane, after the dispatcher repeatedly told me they were 10 minutes away for an hour, and then I managed to just street hail a cab at 5 am) cabs were also about 50% more expensive. However, my local cab company got an app, it’s a piece of shit, but it shows where the cab is in a map as it comes to you, which really was the killer feature for Uber/Lyft for me. So good riddance Uber, you served a purpose for a time, but normal cabs stepped up their game just a little bit, and I have basically negative loyalty to you.
- marcinzm 4y ago
  In NYC the call taxi companies were cheaper than uber/lyft even in the prime discount days of those apps. Of course the user experience was much worse.
  - vkou 4y ago
    In NYC my user experience with Lyft has been much worse than taxis. Cost more, longer waits, cherry on top of a Lyft driver waiting five minutes on the other side of a long block away from pickup, and canceling the ride because I allegedly refused to show up. That I had to talk to CS to reverse the charge with. I took taxis for the rest of my time in NYC, and I can't see any reason not to keep doing so.
ghaff 4y ago
>people don't actually want to pay the premium for that better level of service See air travel in general.
- logifail 4y ago
  >>people don't actually want to pay the premium for that better level of service > See air travel in general. At least in Europe, currently having a provider get you from A to B as per your booking is the key, "premium" / "better level of service" is completely irrelevant. I'm back to booking everything as cheap as possible. If it's all going to go wrong, I want to have paid peanuts for it so I can just walk away and not bother having to try and claim anything back.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    I admittedly do relatively few short-haul flights. With some exceptions, 5 hours is about the floor so I will pay for more comfort/relaxation.
    - Spivak 4y ago
      Paying more for a better seat makes sense, paying more for a better airline really doesn’t unless you’re rich af or a business traveler and want double xl super platinum diamond plus premium status.
      - logifail 4y ago
        > Paying more for a better seat makes sense We'll need a working definition of "better"... Intra-Europe you're going to have to look long and hard to spot the difference between the "business class" seat at the front of the aircraft and the cheaper seats further back. You will (probably) get an inch or two extra legroom, the middle seat next to you will likely be blocked so there's more personal space, and you'll get something to eat and drink. Whether that's really worth spending a few hundred $$$/€€€/£££ extra is between you and your wallet.
    - 4y ago

johnisgood 4y ago

In Eastern Europe there is no Uber nor Lyft. Waiting time is 2-10 minutes on average in a fairly large city. Cars are definitely not dirty nor unmaintained, they have the reputation of having cars that are almost new, and so forth. Prices have increased of course.

cavisne 4y ago
what would be a tourists experience getting in such a taxi if they werent local? For me this was the biggest game changer of Uber.
DeathArrow 4y ago
It depends on the country. In my country we have Uber and Bolt and we had other players which withdrew. But most people still prefer taxis as they are cheaper and better regulated by laws.

pessimizer 4y ago

> Very difficult to find a taxi if you weren’t in popular areas. Yes, now it's impossible to find a taxi anywhere unless you have a smartphone and an Uber/Lyft account. I miss the days when I didn't have to have a lifelong relationship with my cab.

vtbassmatt 4y ago

> Very difficult to find a taxi if you weren’t in popular areas. Calling a dispatcher for a taxi only to wait an hour and have them not show up. Funny timing. I just attended a wedding where the hotel was in Annapolis, Maryland, and the venue was about 5 miles outside Annapolis. The couple had recommended using Lyft due to limited parking, and had even given everyone a voucher to offset the cost. Getting from hotel -> venue at 4pm was no problem at all. We started trying to get a return ride at a few minutes before 10pm. First the app took about 4 minutes to match us to a driver, then rapidly cycled through a handful of drivers before ensuring us that our driver was 11 minutes away. For the next 20 minutes, that driver seemed to patrol up and down a street near downtown, with his ETA bouncing between 10-12 minutes. My guess is he accidentally accepted my "bad" (outside of downtown) ride and was hoping I'd cancel? I didn't, and he finally did. The app spins for a few minutes and then tells us someone is 15 minutes away. This person calls me and asks where I'm going, specifically am I going to DC. I answer that I'm not, I'm headed to downtown Annapolis, and he says he'll be right there. He made 3-4 minutes of progress toward us, then the app abruptly cycled through two more drivers. After another few minutes, I guess another driver cancelled on us, leaving the app to spin for several minutes unsuccessfully. At this point I cancelled the ride and was about to call a traditional cab. It was 10:45, the wedding had ended at 10:30, and it was starting to rain. Luckily, another couple at the wedding had correctly predicted that we wouldn't be able to get a ride back downtown. They had gotten a three-row SUV ("Lyft XL" or something) to get to the wedding, then gotten contact details from the driver so they could privately hail him after the wedding. Assuming we weren't too particular about obeying seatbelt laws, they had plenty of space for us. I'm not sure why people think the ride-"sharing" services have solved so many problems. I hope to never have to do business with these apps again.