I'm old enough to remember calling a taxi company the day before a flight to arrange a pickup at my place for 5:30. Then calling them again 5:00 the day of the flight and them telling me that the one guy didn't come in so now they couldn't pick me up until 7 -- My flight departure time! Then me frantically calling other taxi companies. I had to skip my shower.

They seemed to hate their customers

I had the same issues with airport trips and taxis, frequently having to build in an extra 1-2 hours on top of the typical airport buffer to make sure I'd get there. So many no-shows, empty promises, and lies by dispatch. So many scams, fare spiking, outright hostility, and shenanigans from drivers.

I signed up for Uber after a panicked morning in Denver with 2 no-showing taxis. Never looked back after that, though I use Lyft 90% of the time now.

I have no tears at all for anyone involved in the taxi industry.

Once I needed to catch an early flight, and no Uber drivers were available in my vicinity. But most of the time Uber and Lyft worked for me.

If there is a train to the airport, I usually prefer it, because it avoids (unpredictable) traffic jams.

This is a funny thread because Uber at least has started doing both these things.

Uber will show a message saying you won't see the fare until there's a ride. Their FAQ claims it can happen if you hail faster than they can calculate a price, but it happens awfully often to me.

I've also noticed their scheduled rides are really unreliable. They seem to start searching way too late, and I've almost missed a flight over them not finding an available car in Miami of all cities...

The scheduled rides feature is buggy in the app, there's two different entry points that behave differently.

But FWIW I scheduled a 5am flight to the airport in mexico city with Uber and it was great

Uber did exactly this to a friend of mine just a couple months ago. Except they didn't even offer the 7am pickup. They just cancelled the ride 15 minutes before the pickup.

It happened to me. The Uber app assured me that a driver was on the way, then it was late, then it canceled, and not a single driver was available within the area.

This was at 6a to catch an 8a flight in a Bay Area town that’s 35 min from SFO.

Uber and Lyft are now exactly like cab companies, the only difference being that their “credit card machine works”

Private car services work remarkably well if you’re done with Uber, Lyft, or taxis not showing up.

Uber, once the taxi killer, soon the exact swap-in replacement :)

just like online streaming promised to replace the tv, now more and more a drop-in replace for it in a (not so) different distribution technology.

Yeah, it removed the linear time constraints but it's just a TV.

They want the time constraints back too. So many streaming services these days still have shows that air episodes at regular times rather than a while season at once. They also drop content regularly, offer to steam content for limited times, or only provide recent episodes.

They can't wait to back to the point where they can dictate people's schedules and induce FOMO in their customers. They just have to condition us slowly into accepting it after netflix spoiled us.

Well the main thing with taxis is that getting any ride to show up on demand is a shitshow, whereas with ubers you just have to wait 5-10 minutes (at least in my area).

Except when you reserve an Uber and it never shows up, as I literally just described.

It's funny though: cabs have gotten better and Uber has gotten worse.

I've switched back to taking cabs from the airport. Ubers are slower (cabs are sitting there just waiting) and much, much expensive now (like 2x the cost of a cab).

The product isn't any better anymore. The cars are rundown and often smelly. It is nice to be able to put in an address and not deal with a credit card payment at the destination -- but that's about the only benefit left.

I didn't realise this until going through JFK recently. Cabs: no wait, fixed price, professional driver. Uber: long wait, twice as expensive, driver and car a complete crap-shoot.

Feels like the economies of scale only work when you own the taxi fleet itself. I.e. you have dedicated mechanics etc etc. As soon as the consumer has to pay the true price of a taxi ride, Uber crumbles. There's another world in which Uber was a whitelabel app for cab firms, making millions but certainly not worth billions (so, making millions rather than losing billions!).

If the cabs are half the price of a rideshare and they have typically have to wait in those long taxi lines before a fare, how are those drivers not the ones being more exploited?

Lyft/Uber take 20-25% of the fare, so the ride share drivers are making more on the trip. They have variable vehicle upkeep costs, but taxi drivers renting medallions and the vehicles are hardly better off.

Those lines move pretty fast at major areas, and if the total calls/dollars per hour are higher, they may come out ahead. Utilization matters, as does how the taxi company "rents" the vehicles/medallions.

Many criticize the state and local officials who profited (or generated tax revenue) from exploiting those in the medallion system. My understanding is we are seeing a reformed taxi system on the other side of a truly horrible bottom, especially for those who bought the grossly inflated medallions. That the taxi system is/was exploitative and that ride share is/was exploitative are not exclusive though.

Ref:

- Overview: https://documentedny.com/2021/11/23/taxi-cab-medallion-expla...

- NY govt role: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/nyregion/taxi-medallions....

Agreed -- the last couple of times flying home I've found very few, or no Ubers or Lyfts available near the airport (particularly later at night) but plenty of clean, new-ish cabs (mostly hybrid vehicles) waiting with modern payment systems and yes, cheaper! I had also noticed a significant decline in the quality of the Lyft/Uber cars and actually I haven't used a Lyft or Uber in probably a year now.

> I've switched back to taking cabs from the airport.

Yup cabs are way better experience at the airport and the same price or cheaper. I haven't tried using our local cab app, but its been on my mind.

Meanwhile Uber drivers still haven't figured out where to park, or stop in the middle and wave you to run out to their car... while everyone honks at them.

> The cars are rundown and often smelly.

I don't take Uber/Lyft often but yes, it seems like at least 25% of the time it's obvious that the driver smokes in the car when not driving customers. I've also been in a lot of vehicles which very clearly had blown shocks (based on the noises I heard when we went over even mildly rough road)

Depending on where you are, you can use Curb or something similar to pair with your ride and let the app handle payment. I use it (or just hailing cabs) almost exclusively over Uber/Lyft these days, typically 1/2 the price and the drivers don’t get lost in the city either.

On a recent trip to Chicago, from the airport, the taxi was about half the price of Uber to downtown, which my wife and I waited about 20 minutes for. Uber would have been a faster pickup at that point, however.

The taxi picked us up, proceeded to drive us Downtown and upwards of 85-90mph on the highway (was about 11pm at night at this point). The car was probably at least 15 years old and the shocks nearly as old.

After that experience, we used Uber the rest of the trip (and back to the airport) and it was an overall better experience by far.

The best is when you try the taxi, have an experience like yours, and then uber back, and get the same taxi and driver but as an uber.

> The taxi picked us up, proceeded to drive us Downtown and upwards of 85-90mph on the highway (was about 11pm at night at this point).

85-90 might seem like a lot to some folks, but it's not at all uncommon for traffic on the highways around Chicago. Personally, I'd much rather a driver get me to where I'm going quickly if it's safe. 80-90 on an open highway isn't a problem, it's the drivers who are constantly switching lines and cutting off other drivers to "get ahead" I have a problem with.

I drive those highways every day, that's absolutely uncommon unless you're in the exurbs. I drove to Aurora yesterday and speed of traffic was barely over 70.

If you're cruising at 90 in cook county you're asking for a court date. 15mph over the limit mandates it, and I think the highest speed limit is 60 on 290 out in Arlington Heights. It's 45 on the Kennedy once you get into the city right now.

I wonder if the laws are different in Kane/DuPage. I-90/I-94/I-294 are where I tend to see it the most. I tend to stay around 80, but I'm routinely passed by folks far more concerned about getting to their destination quickly. Once I get into the city itself it's too crowded for that and I'm happy just to be going something near speed limit

Interesting - I used to drive I-88 daily from Wheaton to Aurora. Although I was going counterflow, I rarely saw the speed of other vehicles average less than 80-85.

I think it's almost impossible to judge the speed of others unless you're consciously trying to maintain speed with the flow of traffic. If you're constantly passing people as you travel you're not doing that.

I rarely passed others and my car at the time couldn’t go above 80 so I was acutely aware when the traffic was faster than I am.

I think it’s most likely changes in I-88 since I lived there are responsible for any difference.

From O'Hare to downtown, there are two routes: either the I-90 or I-294 then I-290.

In my experience, 80-90 mph would be uncommonly high for either route even on an open highway. It's not the norm until you get out to the far flung suburbs like Naperville (I-88).

My local taxi companies will text you a link which allows you to pay online, so you can pay on the way to the destination. I usually just call and say "taxi from A to B please" before putting my shoes on, because in my experience apps are more hassle.

I would be interested in why Uber got so bad compared to traditional cabs.

In Spain they forbid all this stuff because they sold cab licenses, but the prices are abusive.

Because pay for the drivers is awful when you consider the actual cost of maintaining a car that runs for hundreds of miles every day. So the only ones that survive are those that do not do proper maintenance and those that game the system (e.g. by reporting fake customer no-shows).

This is exactly it - Uber tries to have "fancy cars" as compared to cabs, but there's a reason cabs are made out of washable materials; the first time someone vomits in the back of the Uber it's never really coming back out (there's a "vomit" button in the driver app apparently, it's that common).

You're not caring about them corrupting democracies world wide ? They not only "took care" of taxis, they also pushed for less workers rights (so they can keep not employing their workers) Pushed the stupid unsustainable "gig economy" propaganda.

And what for? For a business model that make no sense (unless they become a monopoly)?

I can dislike them both at the same time.

> is in part because the taxi industry was absolutely horrible to consumers.

But mostly because it didn't had to pay the same fees. It treated employees as independent contractors and negate their rights. And it burned millions on AstroTurfing and ads.

The Mafia also can overtake business where others where there before.

> mostly

That's a strong word here. I'm sure it had nothing to do with taxis being government sanctioned monopolies in most places that they operated.

Wonder what the going rate for a NYC taxi medallion is these days. I bet it's 1/5th of what it was fifteen years ago.

The *majority* of times I've taken a taxi in my life, the driver has tried to scam me. It was ridiculous. I guess I just look like an easy mark or something. It was very routine for them to turn off the meter in the middle and say "don't worry, I know the cost of the trip" It's absurd that it's happened multiple times to me.

No Uber driver has ever tried to scam me. I'd gladly pay a premium for it.

When Uber showed up in Argentina, the taxi industry threw stones at their offices and flipped cars of uber drivers...

The reality is that most of the sentiment against uber is against the new kid in the block, not at all a moral or policy position.

In LA I've never actually had an issue with taxis.

OTOH, I've lost count of the number of Ubers and Lyfts that just never showed up, or cancelled en route, or tried to go the wrong way to pad mileage.

> It's also important to realize that the reason Uber and Lyft were able to crush the taxi industry is in part because the taxi industry was absolutely horrible to consumers.

No. The reason was that Uber has been losing billions of dollars a year, every year, for over a decade and hasn't imploded as a company. Providing a nice ride hailing UI is just the cherry on top.

Same with Lyft, but on a slightly smaller scale.

Nice. It's ok to brake laws just because the service is/was bad. One can extrapolate this type of thinking to any facet of human interaction and the results are scary. Forget about the slippery slope, we're sliding hard with this one.