> At the end of the day, they are all taxi services in my book.

Unless you live in New York, and are trying to get from Manhattan to one of the outer boroughs, in which case getting a yellow cab is a total crapshoot.

It shouldn't matter one bit. They're legally obligated to take you anywhere in the five boroughs.

Just get in before telling them your destination. If they give you flak (and you feel like fighting them), just take note of their medallion # and state clearly that you will report them if they fail to fulfill their obligation.

Or, you know, pay an extra $3 to Uber and avoid that situation all together.

It shouldn't matter, but it does.

There are even fewer regulations preventing Uber drivers from declining a fare based on location - or race, or gender, or they don't like your sports team, or anything.

Does that actually happen?

This article claims that Uber is actually better than cabs because the drivers don't know your race when they agree to pick you up. http://www.racialicious.com/2012/11/28/cab-drivers-uber-and-...

You're absolutely right, but it's still a crapshoot. You being right doesn't mean that the cabbie won't argue with you, and won't just flat out refuse to take you anyway, despite the risk of being reported.

In a perfect world, etc.

While there are places that have fewer open taxis to hail, I never tell them where I'm going till I'm in the cab (it's against the rules to turn down a valid fair because of location IIRC). Easy enough to get a ride to most places you'd want to pay a taxi to go from there.

the quality of the car actually matters to me. in my experience Uber cars tend to be clean and well-maintained internally. i've only tried one Lyft and it was fine, but just not as pleasant to ride in. I'm not saying that's always the case with them, but I still consider that more than cost when deciding which one to use.

I'm not so sure about that, since after seeing a very beat up van with a lyft mustache, I have become very hesitant to using their service.