Anecdotally, having lived in NYC for a few years now, the shift change thing is real. Some time periods are just dead for a little while. If a cab is actually o

Anecdotally, having lived in NYC for a few years now, the shift change thing is real. Some time periods are just dead for a little while. If a cab is actually on shift and available, they'll have their light on and stop and pick you up without asking you where you're going. If they're at the end of their shift, they'll likely stop and ask you where you're going first (without letting you in yet) to see if you happen to be going the same direction they are. If a guy is at the end of his shift and he's based in Jersey, I can understand why he wouldn't want to commit to driving 30-45 minutes in the opposite direction. There are literally hundreds of other cabs in manhattan that would be happy to take you to JFK, and there's a high likelihood you'd be waiting only a few minutes for one of them to come by. I think Uber's a great service, but this article seems to be trying to invent a problem that doesn't really exist. For some cities, like SF and several others in CA where taxis aren't ubiquitous, Uber makes a ton of sense. But in manhattan, I'd say 95+% of the time I'm able to find a cab in under 5 minutes, at a reasonable price, by walking to the nearest street corner.