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itzworm | 2 years ago

> I found taxis waiting in taxi stands in known locations of busy areas, or they would come if you call.

I'm guessing you live in one of the top 5-10 populated cities in the US. (Or a major city outside the US).

The issue is taxis are generally fine in these area, but outside being a dense population center calling a taxi is a flip of the coin.

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ericmcer|2 years ago

Even in the biggest cities if you got 15-20m outside the downtown you were totally out of luck pre-Uber. I have many memories of "calling a cab" in south San Francisco on a friday night and pretty much being laughed at. Uber/Lyft were literally magic when they first came out and you could see your driver coming to you on a map.

lowdest|2 years ago

Literally. Seattle was pretty okay with taxi service in 2011, but in San Francisco, the same taxi company that dropped me off in South San Francisco one day in early 2012 just told me I was on my own and they could not help me when I tried to get a ride home. No numbers for partner companies or suggestions or anything. I was stranded, and willing to pay top dollar. I could not believe the complete failure of the market just a few minutes outside the city.

squeaky-clean|2 years ago

I've had Taxis drive away when someone in my party said "we're going to <place in South Brooklyn>" before anyone got in the vehicle. Cabbies don't want to leave Manhattan. And for that reason you also won't find them outside Manhattan. There's the green borough cabs, but good luck finding one to flag down on a random street in Bay Ridge.

HWR_14|2 years ago

Taxis probably aren't great in smaller areas, and if Ubers were primarily trying to locate themselves there and compete against cars that come when you call in those areas it would probably would work fine. I have to admit my experience with taxis is less dense areas was fine, but is probably more skewed, because taxi services were optimised to take people to/from transportation hubs (e.g. airports, trains) and hotels, and that's how I used them.

However, those smaller areas don't have taxi medallions to avoid and typically have less taxi regulations in general. Obviously, there is still a dumping component where Ubers are sold at a loss, but the main concern I heard most people have with Ubers was them ignoring the various taxi regulations that made it work in dense areas. Things like horrible traffic jams caused by too many Ubers all converging on one location, refusing to pick up minorities, etc.

Edit: To clarify, since I was misunderstood. I don't mean taxis are good at picking up minorities. They, historically and through today, have not been (with some minorities). That's why there are laws that try to make it so taxis have to pick them up. That is one example of a regulation that Uber/Lyft have ignored. AFAIK, this has caused some issues with Uber drivers and no way to appeal except to hope that Uber corporate believes your story.

IG_Semmelweiss|2 years ago

>>>refusing to pick up minorities

Taxi cab companies are infamous for avoiding entire parts of suburbia all over the US. You should spend more time outside of your urban bubble, live in middle america (or in poor LATAM, where uber exists and taxis are unsafe) for a few years, enough to realize there's an entire population underserved by existing taxi monopolies, that have been literally rescued by Uber.

Matticus_Rex|2 years ago

> refusing to pick up minorities

Have you talked to minorities about their experience with taxis?

mjr00|2 years ago

> because taxi services were optimised to take people to/from transportation hubs (e.g. airports, trains) and hotels, and that's how I used them.

This is why your experience is so different from mine. If you're just using them to get around, during the day, going between major traveler landmarks (airport, hotels, tourist destinations), yes, taxis are fine.

Almost all of my taxi/Uber use is as a local. I spent way too many nights in my 20s drunkenly wandering around downtown at 2-3am trying to find a cab to get home.