Fair enough, and sorry if that came off as condescending. Everywhere I've lived (SF and Chicago) Taxis are completely unusable, I'd call dispatch to request one and maybe get one an hour later. The value of Uber/Lyft to me is mostly just that it's a Taxi that works.

Yes, I know from experience that there are parts of the US where taxis are simply awful. But that's not true everywhere.

Where I live, the taxi companies have their own apps that you can use if you prefer (complete with being able to see where the cab is in realtime), and when you call, you'll usually get a cab within 15 minutes.

Aside from price, there literally isn't anything that Uber or Lyft does that the cab companies don't do at least equally well.