There's no way this is a valley thing. I've had mostly terrible taxi experiences across the UK. The exception being advanced airport rides, where they are paid more for the ride and the cost is fixed. Two taxies in a row at the train station recently said their meter wasn't working and it's cash only.

I live on the east coast. A decade ago driving nights for Uber across three different cities and picking up passengers from all over the country, half the people I picked up wanted to tell me their taxi horror stories. Your experience is the exception.

I agree. In my area, taxis were never bad at all, and Uber/Lyft was not much of an improvement. Uber/Lyft got a foothold here purely because they were cheaper.

I dunno where you live, but every time I used a taxi in different countries I was unhappy.

Taxis are globally well known for being terrible and scammy, especially from airports.