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That may have been an experience, but it was not my experience at all. I have found taxis to just be better than Ubers/Lyfts. And yes, that includes when they w
by HWR_14 3y ago
That may have been an experience, but it was not my experience at all. I have found taxis to just be better than Ubers/Lyfts. And yes, that includes when they were new.
I found taxis waiting in taxi stands in known locations of busy areas, or they would come if you call. If they had to come, I found them far reliable in terms of "when the vehicle would get there" than Uber or Lyft. Both of which promise arrivals and then often have to recalculate.
I found taxis to be more predictable in price. I could get a pretty accurate estimate from a taxi driver. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft only gave you their estimate and had no problem silently charging you more. (I believe that has been fixed).
And cabs ability to take cash was great. Yes, rarely they tried "the machine is not working", but that was rare and easy to deal with like you said. Meanwhile, if you wanted to do something non-standard (e.g. make multiple stops[0]) you could, either by paying a small cash extra or because they were a person not a machine they could handle it.
Meanwhile, the reason there was so much taxi regulation was that without it traffic becomes unbearable. There would be hour long traffic jams of ubers going to pick people up near the front door whenever an event let out, as opposed to people walking to where the taxis had to pick them up.[0] But in general they are horrible for traffic.
[0] Uber/Lyft can handle that now, but could not earlier
- itzworm 3y ago> I found taxis waiting in taxi stands in known locations of busy areas, or they would come if you call. I'm guessing you live in one of the top 5-10 populated cities in the US. (Or a major city outside the US). The issue is taxis are generally fine in these area, but outside being a dense population center calling a taxi is a flip of the coin.
- HWR_14 3y agoTaxis probably aren't great in smaller areas, and if Ubers were primarily trying to locate themselves there and compete against cars that come when you call in those areas it would probably would work fine. I have to admit my experience with taxis is less dense areas was fine, but is probably more skewed, because taxi services were optimised to take people to/from transportation hubs (e.g. airports, trains) and hotels, and that's how I used them. However, those smaller areas don't have taxi medallions to avoid and typically have less taxi regulations in general. Obviously, there is still a dumping component where Ubers are sold at a loss, but the main concern I heard most people have with Ubers was them ignoring the various taxi regulations that made it work in dense areas. Things like horrible traffic jams caused by too many Ubers all converging on one location, refusing to pick up minorities, etc. Edit: To clarify, since I was misunderstood. I don't mean taxis are good at picking up minorities. They, historically and through today, have not been (with some minorities). That's why there are laws that try to make it so taxis have to pick them up. That is one example of a regulation that Uber/Lyft have ignored. AFAIK, this has caused some issues with Uber drivers and no way to appeal except to hope that Uber corporate believes your story.
- Matticus_Rex 3y ago> refusing to pick up minorities Have you talked to minorities about their experience with taxis?
- HWR_14 3y agoI clearly miscommunicated and edited my post.
- scarface_74 3y ago> Ubers all converging on one location, refusing to pick up minorities https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/07/25/ride-hailing-services-are-seen-by-minorities-as-a-benefit-to-areas-underserved-by-taxis/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/07/25/ride-hail... As opposed to https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/23/as-a-black-man-its-hard-to-catch-a-cab-research-shows-even-white-people-know-that/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/23/...
- IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago>>>refusing to pick up minorities Taxi cab companies are infamous for avoiding entire parts of suburbia all over the US. You should spend more time outside of your urban bubble, live in middle america (or in poor LATAM, where uber exists and taxis are unsafe) for a few years, enough to realize there's an entire population underserved by existing taxi monopolies, that have been literally rescued by Uber.
- mjr00 3y ago> because taxi services were optimised to take people to/from transportation hubs (e.g. airports, trains) and hotels, and that's how I used them. This is why your experience is so different from mine. If you're just using them to get around, during the day, going between major traveler landmarks (airport, hotels, tourist destinations), yes, taxis are fine. Almost all of my taxi/Uber use is as a local. I spent way too many nights in my 20s drunkenly wandering around downtown at 2-3am trying to find a cab to get home.
- ericmcer 3y agoEven in the biggest cities if you got 15-20m outside the downtown you were totally out of luck pre-Uber. I have many memories of "calling a cab" in south San Francisco on a friday night and pretty much being laughed at. Uber/Lyft were literally magic when they first came out and you could see your driver coming to you on a map.
- lowdest 3y agoLiterally. Seattle was pretty okay with taxi service in 2011, but in San Francisco, the same taxi company that dropped me off in South San Francisco one day in early 2012 just told me I was on my own and they could not help me when I tried to get a ride home. No numbers for partner companies or suggestions or anything. I was stranded, and willing to pay top dollar. I could not believe the complete failure of the market just a few minutes outside the city.
- suzzer99 3y agoSan Francisco taxis were the worst. It was impossible to get a cab on Friday and Saturday nights, and they always blocked any attempts to add more cabs to the roads. I have zero sympathy for them.
- squeaky-clean 3y agoI've had Taxis drive away when someone in my party said "we're going to <place in South Brooklyn>" before anyone got in the vehicle. Cabbies don't want to leave Manhattan. And for that reason you also won't find them outside Manhattan. There's the green borough cabs, but good luck finding one to flag down on a random street in Bay Ridge.
- tehwebguy 3y agoOne small beef with Uber and Lyft is the vastly understated estimated pickup time at airports, LAX in particular for me. It’s not a big deal, it’s just so silly that they made a big thing about being a “data company” but would still essentially do the bad friend thing (texting “On my way!” when you haven’t even got in the shower yet)
- HWR_14 3y agoI read that Uber and Lyft respond with a "quick enough" time that you don't switch to the other regardless of if they have a driver assigned. Based on how they act, I believe it.
- scarface_74 3y agoLAX is a shit show trying to get Uber in general having to take a bus to get to the Uber pick up.
- suzzer99 3y agoI take Uber to LAX and cab home. Cabs are significantly cheaper than Uber now.
- giantrobot 3y ago> LAX is a shit show This and only this. I've never even had an adequate experience with that damned airport.
- scarface_74 3y agoThe airport lounges are decent - at least the Delta lounge and the Amex Centurion lounge
- scarface_74 3y agoMy wife and I don’t have cars and we travel all over the US “nomadding”. It’s a great thing no matter where we are, we can just take Uber from place A to place B anytime day or night. I speak a little Spanish. But I couldn’t imagine trying to get around Los Cabos, Mexico for three weeks without Uber.
- detourdog 3y agoI liked to see you try to Uber in Western Mass.
- ghaff 3y agoYeah, it's certainly not everywhere. My brother has a house near a midsize (by Maine standards) city and I could not get an Uber or Lyft when my car broke down last summer and others told me that was normal. (Not that cabs are great either.) And they're pretty thin around where I live 50 miles outside of Boston.
- scarface_74 3y agoSo far, we’ve only done larger cities/metros
- detourdog 3y agoDuring the summer we have newspaper stories of people coming from NYC for the weekend and having their minds blown when they try to Uber. I did see someone post on frontporchforum post that there were now a driver for either Lyft or Uber. Your confidence in the uberness of Uber I thought should be broaden.
- scarface_74 3y agoWell there was the one time I took Uber to the outskirts of Puerto Rico to go horseback riding and there was no service to get home and I ended up paying $200 to get back to San Juan to taxi service.