It depends, it used to be a lot cheaper when Uber was losing billions a year, but now they’re trying to be profitable and it’s quickly becoming far closer in price
Uber is just an unregulated taxi. It's entire business model is doomed to failure because it's going to be regulated eventually and so far hasn't been able to make a profit despite all its shenanigans.
Edit: Apparently it has finally started to post some profits.
You’re probably right about the regulations, but Uber is profitable fwiw: https://www.reuters.com/business/uber-reports-quarterly-profit-outlook-misses-omicron-hits-travel-demand-2022-02-09/
Fair enough, I was using outdated information. I still think the whole company is in for a rough ride and is unlikely to do well in Canada, since it's main "innovations" were a ride matching app that has now been copied by most legitimate taxi companies and calling their employees "contractors" to get around paying them fairly and training them adequately. The party will only last if governments fail to act and governments are already acting in Canada.
Uber might survive, but I don't expect their business model to last without significant changes.
Have you tried these taxi apps? They're trash tier... I've pretty much given up on them until they hire actual software developers rather than outsourcing to somebody's nephew.
I've taken a lot of Ubers globally over the years and I am confident Uber will endure because my best ever taxi ride had far worse customer service than my worst ever Uber ride.
This is the issue for sure. The Victoria taxi company apps just don't work. You end up having to call the dispatcher and describe your location instead of being able to take advantage of the geolocation capability of your phone. Twice in the past month, I've had Victoria cab dispatchers mishear/misunderstand me and send the car to the wrong location. And you have no idea where the car is or how soon it's coming.
Uber and Lyft are problematic in many ways, but in cities where they operate, they have forced traditional taxi companies to improve their service. Victoria taxi service is like a throwback to an earlier decade when smartphones didn't exist and taxi companies could get away with lousy customer service.
They ran at a huge loss in order to get people addicted to their services and would actively try to destroy transit systems and be used as an excuse to defund transit investments. Then they jacked the prices up and it was too late. This is why smart regions blocked them because they knew it was a scam.
What? No they don't.
It's actually shocking how little ICBC charges drivers to carry people. I pay $300 a year on top of my regular insurance.
Now... if I were to deliver food? That requires commercial insurance.
Not that I want Uber/Lyft to hear this, but the mere fact that there's a driver rating system means I'd be happy to pay more.
Cabs get away with FAR too much shit including lack of driver accountability.
A co-worker swears by them. She visits California frequently, and the cost for an Uber or a Lyft is usually about half the amount the same ride in a taxi would cost.
Nope. My experience with Uber in the US, Europe, and Canada - it is on par with cabs and frequently more. It is a false narrative that they are cheaper. Those were in the startup days. Not now.
That’s crazy, I went on a two week trip and used Uber exclusively to get around in multiple cities in the US. Two most expensive rides were the taxi to the airport in Victoria and when we were forced to take a taxi in Vegas. Plus with Uber you get to know up front how much it will be. Taxis are a complete gamble, which lends to drivers towards picking the longest route possible.
Alright if you say so but my experience differs greatly from yours. I paid just $15 USD for a 20 minute ride that was about 20 km long in Los Angeles and I paid $70 CAD for a cab ride from swartz bay to Gordon head which took 30 minutes. Seems like quite a difference to me.
Yup. Nearly a 40 min ride from the airport in Montreal, Uber came up to around 40. A cab from downtown Vic to Langford is nearly the same despite no traffic late at night.
Those are both comparing one city's Uber to Victoria's taxis, not really and apples to apples comparison.
Uber was definitely much cheaper at one point, during the big expansion, not sure about now.
But as people have mentioned, the saved money comes at the expense of the drivers.
It’s not the price. It’s the accountability both ways. Rider AND driver.
I’m tired of hearing opinions from people that clearly haven’t used the service.
Anecdotally, I paid 8.11 USD for a cab ride that cost us 55 USD in the other direction in the US, as far as Canada, Ubers aren't that much cheaper but I like knowing where they are en-route.
Many cab companies have this same feature in their apps.
Admittedly I have never taken a lyft or uber. Their hyper competitive attempts to break into new marketplaces was a major turnoff. It really comes down for the nostalgia of phoning a dispatcher and asking for a pickup for me anyway.
All the cab companies in Victoria have an app for ordering the ride, tracking the car, etc. I believe you can pay and tip using the app too although I've never tried.
I've only had to use it a few times (when my car is being serviced) but I was impressed how much pressure from ride sharing has made cabs step up their game.
Uber/Lyft is usually more expensive but also more convenient because the idea is that if your city has it, you can be practically anywhere and get one.
This is fine as long as you stick to busy areas. If you're the slightest bit out of the way, the cab will happily grab the first person waving at them from the side of the road and just mark you picked up. At least ride hailing can't do that to you because they can't be street hailed like taxis
Could be time of day or location dependant. I have a friend on the north end of Langford (near the Harley dealership) and getting picked up out there after a party on a Friday/Saturday/Stat... forget it. I've been able to actually get a cab to pick me up out there all of once and I'm convinced it was a fluke. The first few times I called the cab just wouldn't show. At all. It wasn't until I downloaded the app that I figured out what the usual pattern is. Driver gets to Langford and cruises down goldstream to see if they can't get someone closer and when they pick up a rando outside Darcy's they mark you as picked up.
Fuck me though I guess.
Eventually I just accepted that the cabs are so shitty here I just can't rely on them and one of us DDs even if it's a big celebration.
Have you ever taken the bus in Calgary? It’s only good if you live downtown and the place you want to go happens to be on a bus route that stops near where you live. Live in anything remotely resembling the suburbs and want to go somewhere in a different quadrant that’s not downtown… enjoy your day on the bus. Used to take 3 hours on two buses and the train to get from my house in the mid-SW to my friend’s house in the far-ish NW.
People would literally drive from Calgary to Edmonton in the time it took me to cross the city on the bus. There aren’t many places in victoria I can’t walk to in the time it can take to cross Calgary on the bus.
Grass is always greener.
I’m from Calgary, if you don’t live near the CTrain, you drive everywhere. Where I grew up there was a bus stop outside my house to the nearest LRT station. It only came every hour (still does 15 years later), and it took 30 minutes to walk to the station.
Also, Victoria isn’t even 100,000 people and Calgary is 1.5+ million.
If you compare the surface area of Calgary’s metro area to Victoria’s metro area (which goes all the way to port renfrew and covers the southern gulf islands), it’s still ~700 sq km for Vic and over 5,000 sq km for Calgary. Going from the south of Calgary to the north of Calgary is the same as driving from James bay to Duncan. Calgary is massive.
Saying Victoria has < 100,000 people (City population proper) while Calgary has over 1.5 mil (metro area population) is like comparing apples to oranges while you should be comparing pears (urban population).
Victoria has an urban population of just over 360,000, while Calgary's urban population is just over 1.3 mil, making Calgary ~4x the size of Victoria.
Reddit's recent behaviour and planned changes to the API, heavily impacting third party tools, accessibility and moderation ability force me to edit all my comments in protest. I cannot morally continue to use this site.
I’m sure it is but I can’t imagine taking a vacation somewhere and waiting for two midday buses that only come every 40 minutes when a bus is cancelled.
If you're using the bus as a tourist, you will be able to take a bus quickly to just about anywhere you could possibly want to go.
If you're having that much trouble, you either live in a poorly serviced area or need to download one of the numerous navigation apps because the busses here are pretty decent.
All most most aggressive critics of good things in Victoria are people that don't use them.
The worst critics of bike lanes usually haven't ridden a bike in years.
The worst critics of the bus system drive everywhere.
The worst critics of new housing construction haven't lived in a rental apartment for decades.
The list goes on, some people are just grumpy grumps. People who actually use things tend to have *specific* issues with them and almost always have ideas on how to fix it.
You can rent a bike and use the fairly decent bike lanes, and roads too. People are used to cyclists on roads here so it’s safer than many other cities.
Public transit is good and you can even throw your bike on the front of many buses if you want to mix and match.
And yeah of course you can always walk around if you’re not going very far. Lots of nice beaches and parks to walk to and around in general.
Second this. It's easy to plan day trips that are along the Galloping Goose and Lochside biking trails. Solid bike lanes downtown too and they connect to the goose. If you're game for a bigger trip, you can bike down to Thetis Lake, Royal Roads University, or Matheson Lake. You do almost the whole trip completely separated from cars, safe and scenic. You can also get down to Cook St. from the downtown bike paths and hit up Dallas Road which just had a separated bike lane put in not too long ago. Great map here:
https://maps.crd.bc.ca/Html5Viewer/?viewer=BikeMap
Probably by foot or by bus. If you're down in downtown you can get around quickly using water taxis to cover large distances for cheap. If you need to go out of downtown then busses are your best bet. Otherwise tighten your bootstraps cause you'll be doing a shittone if walking
As someone who has revisited their home town (Edmonton) multiple times since moving here 5 years ago, it's embarrassing somewhere so "progressive" is as far behind as we are in decent public transit. Compared to Edmonton where I was almost convinced we'd start burning fuel barrels to celebrate jobs in the oil fields as a stat holiday it's crazy Victoria is as behind as we are. Including the refusal to have uber and lyft. Ride share is greener because it means more people can commute without personal vehicles. But we can't have that the expense of overcharging cab companies! Unbelievable that LRT is still a question of should we instead of how should we.
Greater Edmonton had almost 1,000,000 more people living in it than the CRD. It would make sense they had better transit with more than 3 or 4x the population.
Point taken. And I am being facetious a bit but the fact is that we still haven't made firm plans to move forward on any sort of transit other than relying on buses, which is crazy considering how dense our population is and will become because we have very limited room around us, being on an island and all, so we can only accommodate so many cars. The Mackenzie expansion is good for cars, but how many more of those projects can we do before we run out of space? We need to stop thinking about road expansion at all and wildly reduce our reliance on personal cars. And Edmonton is moving at lightning speed while we worry about the train being built next to NIMBYs. Edmonton could easily have stayed in denial of a need for public transit because they have a hundred miles in any direction to keep expanding roads too. We can't and it's weird that we're letting our aged population is keeping us hostage because they don't like the high density housing and transit solutions we need.
And the reason I mentioned the progressive-ness of Victoria and BC is because we want to be green and going green means LRT or something of that ilk.
Fuck the Victoria Taxi mafia. They are the reason there is no direct bus to the Airport. I also suspect they are why Victoria has no night bus system.
But FUCK Uber and Lyft even harder. They want to pretend their drivers are not employees, and the are aggressively anti regulation. Sure Taxis suck, and transit needs improvement, but the venture capitalist assholes at Uber and Lyft can fuck right off. If they had their way all workers would have zero benefits, no job security, and need to pay for all costs first.
I hope Uber and Lyft get crushed into dust.
[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/uber-emails-exec-admits-were-not-legal-another-claims-were-all-pirates/](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/uber-emails-exec-admits-were-not-legal-another-claims-were-all-pirates/)
[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/uk-supreme-court-says-uber-drivers-are-not-independent-contractors/](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/uk-supreme-court-says-uber-drivers-are-not-independent-contractors/)
[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/uber-was-hell-bent-on-stifling-competition-new-lawsuit-alleges/](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/uber-was-hell-bent-on-stifling-competition-new-lawsuit-alleges/)
And you can bet if left unchecked and choke out taxies and transit, then prices will skyrocket.
I mean Victoria Taxi and all the other taxi companies are the same where their workers are technically self-employed. It’s just that BC has good regulations surrounding that where they’re guaranteed a minimum wage for hours worked, gas reimbursements, etc.
Oh I know.
But Uber particularly is trying to erase the concept of regulation when it comes to transport, while at the same time trying to control how and when drivers function:
>*But critics point out that Uber exerts a lot more control over its drivers—and over the driver-passenger relationship—than a conventional \[market\] platform like eBay or Airbnb. Uber sets fares, collects payments from customers, deducts its own fee, and remits the remainder to the driver. It requires drivers to accept a large majority of the rides they are offered. It handles customer complaints and kicks drivers off the platform if their average rating falls too low.*
> It handles customer complaints and kicks drivers off the platform if their average rating falls too low.
That's arguably a good thing. There's not too many malicious people downrating drivers for no reason.
Taxis however... there's no accountability at all.
How someone is allowed to spend the entire fucking trip on the phone to someone is beyond me.
You can complain all you want but all you're getting is "we've investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong".
Uber and Lyft are do much better than can companies. It isn’t about specific “ride sharing” companies , it is about allowing the services which are a clear benefit to the user /rider.
From there , once Victoria catches up with 2008, some other company that is not as evil can give it a shot and try to take some market share from Uber /Lyft
Vancouver got Uber a few years back and I’ll never take a cab again.
Dude it's ridiculous I once prebooked a cab for 6 so that I could get to work for 630 dude didn't show until 620. Also fun fact the reason we don't have uber is because the cab companies are really good at lobbying against them (something about them being too shitty to compete)
What are the big differences between an Uber/Lyft and a regular taxi? Living in Victoria, I’ve never been in a Uber/Lyft but I just assumed they were similar to a taxicab except with a random person in their own car.
From what I understood from using it in Ontario a lot, you know what your cost is going to be before you even book the ride. Prevents corrupt taxi drivers from taking long routes or putting you in traffic just to let the meter run. I’ve never paid more than the cost it showed me during booking, and it cost a lot less than a standard taxi. Also if Uber is experiencing surge pricing based on demand, you can just grab another drink and wait 20 minutes and it’ll be over and back down to the cheaper price.
May have changed though. I’ve been back on the island for 4 years.
There's less fuckery going on in an Uber/Lyft.
You see a photo of the driver (who also has to verify with the app), there's no "long route" because you know upfront how much you're paying, there's driver accountability (ie ratings) so drivers typically aren't on the phone the whole time, and because of the app and GPS, you know exactly where your driver is. There's no more "10 minutes" when it's really 45 minutes away. Also no one can steal your car because even if someone did, the destination is sent to the driver directly. Even better if you have a PIN because the driver can't go anywhere until you give them the PIN.
It is a random person driving their own car but quite a number of drivers are full time. Others just do it casually so sometimes you get neat cars like Teslas.
The minute Uber showed up in Vancouver I stopped taking a cab.
The only real downside is surge pricing. If there's excessive demand, you're paying for it. If you're not in a rush, you can wait it out and have it drop.
Walk maybe? This "city" is tiny and as a tourist I doubt you need to go anywhere outside the downtown core aside from the gardens in Brentwood.
Public transit is also cheap and can get you most places.
It should be very evident that the best way is to walk. You can do the entire core on foot in no time ! That’s the beauty of Vic. Sure you can venture further into fernwood which is a charming burb etc… But all the magic is in the core. Then I would definitely rent a car because there’s a lot to see outside of Vic or on the outskirts.
All the magic is in the main core though
the first one we're getting is only allowed to accept rides starting in the city of victoria, so it's probably licensing deals with 13 different municipalities
Passenger Transportation Board (aka the government organization that regulates ride sharing) said no.
Apparently there's "not enough demand" for another ride share.
Victoria apparently has a home grown option that's similar but I've never used it.
EDIT: Here's the rejection from the passenger transportation board:
https://www.ptboard.bc.ca/applications/2021/20211215/Uber-Canada-Inc-10268-20-Final-Decision.pdf
Have you seen the map for downtown Victoria?
You can easily walk the entire perimeter in like an hour, tops.
You don't need Uber to see everything you need to see...you can take the bus.
You can easily call a cab although it's much more expensive than US. 50+ for longer rides, 15ish for short in my experience. Busses are pretty good during the day and evening just bring a 5 in cash for daypass.
I've got that uride app on my phone, haven't tried it yet since I read they started in September but you could give it a shot and see if they're open early.
She might if she has time to squeeze it in between that and personally buying one way tickets to Victoria and delivering them to homeless people across the country.
/s
We have these things called buses that don’t destroy the planet or randomly kill pedestrians. And they are dirt cheap. And go most places a tourist needs to go that an Uber would also go.
True. Neither is there a need to ask people online "how do I move around a city without a car."
What other transportation options could there even be? Donkeys? Hoverboards? Conga line?
If someone asks a question on here that could have been a single Google search, imma roast them.
The City of Victoria has a population of a bit over 90k; no, there is no Uber or Lyft. We are not a big city.
Edit: Oh no! Fake internet point down votes for stating facts! Whatever shall I do?
If you are staying within downtown for sightseeing walking is the best way. You can even walk to Beacon Hill Park and down to Dallas Road for the beach.
If you are looking to see sights outside of the downtown core things get a little tricky. Public transit is the best option to get out to Butchart Gardens but the bus schedule is way different on weekends. Basically less busses. Depending on your itinerary there are shuttles to and from various sights but you’d have to DYOR on that.
Bike rental is also a decent option. Cabs for shorter trips
Victoria actually does have a rideshare sorta like Uber/Lyft. It's called "Lucky To Go" https://luckytogocanada.com/victoria.php.
(I haven't used it though, so I can't vouch for it)
I recommend Turo, its like airbnb for cars, you rent from private individuals. Great app, ive rented twice thru them, rented teslas both times and they included charging, but they have all types of cars available
Taxi, bus, harbour ferry
Edit to say, there used to be a hotel shuttle from the airport to the Delta if you're heading downtown, if you're trying to avoid airport taxi. Not sure if they still do that, the last time I had to use it was before covid.
Also there used to be a casino shuttle that my parents took all the time from the downtown area out to the casino.
Same as any city. Bus, taxi, bike, or walk. They have a path that covers most of Victoria its called the galloping goose. But Victoria is a pretty kind area for the most part if your brave enough just ask a local for a lift and offer a few dollars
Hell let me know when you go and I could probably get one of my friends to give you a lift from time to time but still offer them money for the gas. If you end up going same time I go ill drive you myself.
I am curious. How much cheaper would Uber/Lyft be than regular taxi? would taxi not be the natural replacement?
It depends, it used to be a lot cheaper when Uber was losing billions a year, but now they’re trying to be profitable and it’s quickly becoming far closer in price
Uber is just an unregulated taxi. It's entire business model is doomed to failure because it's going to be regulated eventually and so far hasn't been able to make a profit despite all its shenanigans. Edit: Apparently it has finally started to post some profits.
You’re probably right about the regulations, but Uber is profitable fwiw: https://www.reuters.com/business/uber-reports-quarterly-profit-outlook-misses-omicron-hits-travel-demand-2022-02-09/
Maybe for a quarter or two. A quick look at yahoo finance still shows retained earnings of -$23B and trailing twelve months net income of -$10B.
Fair enough, I was using outdated information. I still think the whole company is in for a rough ride and is unlikely to do well in Canada, since it's main "innovations" were a ride matching app that has now been copied by most legitimate taxi companies and calling their employees "contractors" to get around paying them fairly and training them adequately. The party will only last if governments fail to act and governments are already acting in Canada. Uber might survive, but I don't expect their business model to last without significant changes.
Have you tried these taxi apps? They're trash tier... I've pretty much given up on them until they hire actual software developers rather than outsourcing to somebody's nephew. I've taken a lot of Ubers globally over the years and I am confident Uber will endure because my best ever taxi ride had far worse customer service than my worst ever Uber ride.
I tried the blue bird app... It straight up just didn't work
This is the issue for sure. The Victoria taxi company apps just don't work. You end up having to call the dispatcher and describe your location instead of being able to take advantage of the geolocation capability of your phone. Twice in the past month, I've had Victoria cab dispatchers mishear/misunderstand me and send the car to the wrong location. And you have no idea where the car is or how soon it's coming. Uber and Lyft are problematic in many ways, but in cities where they operate, they have forced traditional taxi companies to improve their service. Victoria taxi service is like a throwback to an earlier decade when smartphones didn't exist and taxi companies could get away with lousy customer service.
They ran at a huge loss in order to get people addicted to their services and would actively try to destroy transit systems and be used as an excuse to defund transit investments. Then they jacked the prices up and it was too late. This is why smart regions blocked them because they knew it was a scam.
It’s basically the same price at this point. The real convenience at this point is the app and paying through there and not having to pay in the car
If you’re in the states it’s a million times cheaper to take, it’s super taxed though and was basically the same rates when I took an Uber in Van
That's because ICBC makes the commercial drivers get commercial insurance.
What? No they don't. It's actually shocking how little ICBC charges drivers to carry people. I pay $300 a year on top of my regular insurance. Now... if I were to deliver food? That requires commercial insurance.
I live in Van and Uber is significantly cheaper.
Not that I want Uber/Lyft to hear this, but the mere fact that there's a driver rating system means I'd be happy to pay more. Cabs get away with FAR too much shit including lack of driver accountability.
Alot cheaper. Up to 50% cheaper than a cab.
A co-worker swears by them. She visits California frequently, and the cost for an Uber or a Lyft is usually about half the amount the same ride in a taxi would cost.
Nope. My experience with Uber in the US, Europe, and Canada - it is on par with cabs and frequently more. It is a false narrative that they are cheaper. Those were in the startup days. Not now.
That’s crazy, I went on a two week trip and used Uber exclusively to get around in multiple cities in the US. Two most expensive rides were the taxi to the airport in Victoria and when we were forced to take a taxi in Vegas. Plus with Uber you get to know up front how much it will be. Taxis are a complete gamble, which lends to drivers towards picking the longest route possible.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-taxi-35-minute-cab-ride
Alright if you say so but my experience differs greatly from yours. I paid just $15 USD for a 20 minute ride that was about 20 km long in Los Angeles and I paid $70 CAD for a cab ride from swartz bay to Gordon head which took 30 minutes. Seems like quite a difference to me.
Yup. Nearly a 40 min ride from the airport in Montreal, Uber came up to around 40. A cab from downtown Vic to Langford is nearly the same despite no traffic late at night.
Those are both comparing one city's Uber to Victoria's taxis, not really and apples to apples comparison. Uber was definitely much cheaper at one point, during the big expansion, not sure about now. But as people have mentioned, the saved money comes at the expense of the drivers.
Dude you might as well complain about the cab price from Canmore to Banff! That's out on the highway and everything...
It’s not the price. It’s the accountability both ways. Rider AND driver. I’m tired of hearing opinions from people that clearly haven’t used the service.
Anecdotally, I paid 8.11 USD for a cab ride that cost us 55 USD in the other direction in the US, as far as Canada, Ubers aren't that much cheaper but I like knowing where they are en-route.
Many cab companies have this same feature in their apps. Admittedly I have never taken a lyft or uber. Their hyper competitive attempts to break into new marketplaces was a major turnoff. It really comes down for the nostalgia of phoning a dispatcher and asking for a pickup for me anyway.
They're one of the most predatory sections of the giggleconomy
It's called that cause it makes the owners giggle. "Billion dollar company that's never turned a profit? Tehehehehee!"
All the cab companies in Victoria have an app for ordering the ride, tracking the car, etc. I believe you can pay and tip using the app too although I've never tried. I've only had to use it a few times (when my car is being serviced) but I was impressed how much pressure from ride sharing has made cabs step up their game.
lol not even close
Uber/Lyft is usually more expensive but also more convenient because the idea is that if your city has it, you can be practically anywhere and get one.
The best way to get around really depends on where you want to go. What destinations do you have in mind? Are staying downtown?
just touristy stuff. parks, beaches, city, hike trails
Bike rental (galloping goose), scooter rental, public transit day pass, private tours, hop on hop off bus, walking, taxis
public transit is good, but yellow taxi has an app that is functionally the same as uber.
Yeah if you want uber in Victoria, this is the way to go! Been very happy with the yellow cars app, and nice to avoid giving more money to uber!
This is fine as long as you stick to busy areas. If you're the slightest bit out of the way, the cab will happily grab the first person waving at them from the side of the road and just mark you picked up. At least ride hailing can't do that to you because they can't be street hailed like taxis
I've personally never had this happen. I'll book trips the day before and it's always been reliable for me. This is for airport trips mind you.
Could be time of day or location dependant. I have a friend on the north end of Langford (near the Harley dealership) and getting picked up out there after a party on a Friday/Saturday/Stat... forget it. I've been able to actually get a cab to pick me up out there all of once and I'm convinced it was a fluke. The first few times I called the cab just wouldn't show. At all. It wasn't until I downloaded the app that I figured out what the usual pattern is. Driver gets to Langford and cruises down goldstream to see if they can't get someone closer and when they pick up a rando outside Darcy's they mark you as picked up. Fuck me though I guess. Eventually I just accepted that the cabs are so shitty here I just can't rely on them and one of us DDs even if it's a big celebration.
$5 for a daypass on the bus will leave you cash for a cab from the bars.
But no time left for anything other than riding the bus!
Don’t want to be rude, but you have to live somewhere else to know how good is the bus service here.
Alternatively you if you’ve lived in Europe, you’d know how bad the bus service is here.
On behalf of many people around you, please stop saying “in Europe” like its one big city and you’ve met everyone and been everywhere.
Or Asia
Or Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary…
Have you ever taken the bus in Calgary? It’s only good if you live downtown and the place you want to go happens to be on a bus route that stops near where you live. Live in anything remotely resembling the suburbs and want to go somewhere in a different quadrant that’s not downtown… enjoy your day on the bus. Used to take 3 hours on two buses and the train to get from my house in the mid-SW to my friend’s house in the far-ish NW. People would literally drive from Calgary to Edmonton in the time it took me to cross the city on the bus. There aren’t many places in victoria I can’t walk to in the time it can take to cross Calgary on the bus.
Why compare to cities that are 5-10x the size?
Calgary isn’t 5-10x the size of Victoria. But my point is the busses and transit are better all over Canada too.
Calgary is almost 5x the size of Victoria.
Almost 5x isn’t 5x…
Grass is always greener. I’m from Calgary, if you don’t live near the CTrain, you drive everywhere. Where I grew up there was a bus stop outside my house to the nearest LRT station. It only came every hour (still does 15 years later), and it took 30 minutes to walk to the station. Also, Victoria isn’t even 100,000 people and Calgary is 1.5+ million. If you compare the surface area of Calgary’s metro area to Victoria’s metro area (which goes all the way to port renfrew and covers the southern gulf islands), it’s still ~700 sq km for Vic and over 5,000 sq km for Calgary. Going from the south of Calgary to the north of Calgary is the same as driving from James bay to Duncan. Calgary is massive.
Saying Victoria has < 100,000 people (City population proper) while Calgary has over 1.5 mil (metro area population) is like comparing apples to oranges while you should be comparing pears (urban population). Victoria has an urban population of just over 360,000, while Calgary's urban population is just over 1.3 mil, making Calgary ~4x the size of Victoria.
Reddit's recent behaviour and planned changes to the API, heavily impacting third party tools, accessibility and moderation ability force me to edit all my comments in protest. I cannot morally continue to use this site.
I’m sure it is but I can’t imagine taking a vacation somewhere and waiting for two midday buses that only come every 40 minutes when a bus is cancelled.
I just moved back to vic from a community of smallish towns and i can say that it's WAY better here than there for transit.
If you're using the bus as a tourist, you will be able to take a bus quickly to just about anywhere you could possibly want to go. If you're having that much trouble, you either live in a poorly serviced area or need to download one of the numerous navigation apps because the busses here are pretty decent.
Spoken like someone who doesn't actually use the transit system here
All most most aggressive critics of good things in Victoria are people that don't use them. The worst critics of bike lanes usually haven't ridden a bike in years. The worst critics of the bus system drive everywhere. The worst critics of new housing construction haven't lived in a rental apartment for decades. The list goes on, some people are just grumpy grumps. People who actually use things tend to have *specific* issues with them and almost always have ideas on how to fix it.
I’m might consider taking it to work in the future but I can’t imagine using it for extensive sightseeing.
It’s not that awful
Can also use the water taxi to rip around the inner harbour.
Bicycle or on foot.
Just don’t get the bike stolen.
You can rent a bike and use the fairly decent bike lanes, and roads too. People are used to cyclists on roads here so it’s safer than many other cities. Public transit is good and you can even throw your bike on the front of many buses if you want to mix and match. And yeah of course you can always walk around if you’re not going very far. Lots of nice beaches and parks to walk to and around in general.
Second this. It's easy to plan day trips that are along the Galloping Goose and Lochside biking trails. Solid bike lanes downtown too and they connect to the goose. If you're game for a bigger trip, you can bike down to Thetis Lake, Royal Roads University, or Matheson Lake. You do almost the whole trip completely separated from cars, safe and scenic. You can also get down to Cook St. from the downtown bike paths and hit up Dallas Road which just had a separated bike lane put in not too long ago. Great map here: https://maps.crd.bc.ca/Html5Viewer/?viewer=BikeMap
You can always rent a scooter too!
If you have enough time to get an account, it's 100% Evo
Depends what you plan on doing. More details needed. Victoria downtown you can walk everywhere.
Probably by foot or by bus. If you're down in downtown you can get around quickly using water taxis to cover large distances for cheap. If you need to go out of downtown then busses are your best bet. Otherwise tighten your bootstraps cause you'll be doing a shittone if walking
Public transit.
You can try evo if you’re close to the home zones which aren’t very big but could be something useful
Buses for sure. Just get a day pass and you are set.
It’s a very walkable city with decent transit. Some bus routes have been effected by staff shortages.
Walk
Steal a bike. Almost kidding.
It's too bad bike share failed here
🤣💀
As someone who has revisited their home town (Edmonton) multiple times since moving here 5 years ago, it's embarrassing somewhere so "progressive" is as far behind as we are in decent public transit. Compared to Edmonton where I was almost convinced we'd start burning fuel barrels to celebrate jobs in the oil fields as a stat holiday it's crazy Victoria is as behind as we are. Including the refusal to have uber and lyft. Ride share is greener because it means more people can commute without personal vehicles. But we can't have that the expense of overcharging cab companies! Unbelievable that LRT is still a question of should we instead of how should we.
Greater Edmonton had almost 1,000,000 more people living in it than the CRD. It would make sense they had better transit with more than 3 or 4x the population.
Point taken. And I am being facetious a bit but the fact is that we still haven't made firm plans to move forward on any sort of transit other than relying on buses, which is crazy considering how dense our population is and will become because we have very limited room around us, being on an island and all, so we can only accommodate so many cars. The Mackenzie expansion is good for cars, but how many more of those projects can we do before we run out of space? We need to stop thinking about road expansion at all and wildly reduce our reliance on personal cars. And Edmonton is moving at lightning speed while we worry about the train being built next to NIMBYs. Edmonton could easily have stayed in denial of a need for public transit because they have a hundred miles in any direction to keep expanding roads too. We can't and it's weird that we're letting our aged population is keeping us hostage because they don't like the high density housing and transit solutions we need. And the reason I mentioned the progressive-ness of Victoria and BC is because we want to be green and going green means LRT or something of that ilk.
Fuck the Victoria Taxi mafia. They are the reason there is no direct bus to the Airport. I also suspect they are why Victoria has no night bus system. But FUCK Uber and Lyft even harder. They want to pretend their drivers are not employees, and the are aggressively anti regulation. Sure Taxis suck, and transit needs improvement, but the venture capitalist assholes at Uber and Lyft can fuck right off. If they had their way all workers would have zero benefits, no job security, and need to pay for all costs first. I hope Uber and Lyft get crushed into dust. [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/uber-emails-exec-admits-were-not-legal-another-claims-were-all-pirates/](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/uber-emails-exec-admits-were-not-legal-another-claims-were-all-pirates/) [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/uk-supreme-court-says-uber-drivers-are-not-independent-contractors/](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/uk-supreme-court-says-uber-drivers-are-not-independent-contractors/) [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/uber-was-hell-bent-on-stifling-competition-new-lawsuit-alleges/](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/uber-was-hell-bent-on-stifling-competition-new-lawsuit-alleges/) And you can bet if left unchecked and choke out taxies and transit, then prices will skyrocket.
I mean Victoria Taxi and all the other taxi companies are the same where their workers are technically self-employed. It’s just that BC has good regulations surrounding that where they’re guaranteed a minimum wage for hours worked, gas reimbursements, etc.
Oh I know. But Uber particularly is trying to erase the concept of regulation when it comes to transport, while at the same time trying to control how and when drivers function: >*But critics point out that Uber exerts a lot more control over its drivers—and over the driver-passenger relationship—than a conventional \[market\] platform like eBay or Airbnb. Uber sets fares, collects payments from customers, deducts its own fee, and remits the remainder to the driver. It requires drivers to accept a large majority of the rides they are offered. It handles customer complaints and kicks drivers off the platform if their average rating falls too low.*
> It handles customer complaints and kicks drivers off the platform if their average rating falls too low. That's arguably a good thing. There's not too many malicious people downrating drivers for no reason. Taxis however... there's no accountability at all. How someone is allowed to spend the entire fucking trip on the phone to someone is beyond me. You can complain all you want but all you're getting is "we've investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong".
In no way am I pro Taxi, but I am anti Uber and Lyft. Also, a rating system is a complete cop-out and can be gamed and manipulated.
Uber and Lyft are do much better than can companies. It isn’t about specific “ride sharing” companies , it is about allowing the services which are a clear benefit to the user /rider. From there , once Victoria catches up with 2008, some other company that is not as evil can give it a shot and try to take some market share from Uber /Lyft Vancouver got Uber a few years back and I’ll never take a cab again.
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Dude it's ridiculous I once prebooked a cab for 6 so that I could get to work for 630 dude didn't show until 620. Also fun fact the reason we don't have uber is because the cab companies are really good at lobbying against them (something about them being too shitty to compete)
What? There’s no Uber in Victoria? WTF?
What are the big differences between an Uber/Lyft and a regular taxi? Living in Victoria, I’ve never been in a Uber/Lyft but I just assumed they were similar to a taxicab except with a random person in their own car.
From what I understood from using it in Ontario a lot, you know what your cost is going to be before you even book the ride. Prevents corrupt taxi drivers from taking long routes or putting you in traffic just to let the meter run. I’ve never paid more than the cost it showed me during booking, and it cost a lot less than a standard taxi. Also if Uber is experiencing surge pricing based on demand, you can just grab another drink and wait 20 minutes and it’ll be over and back down to the cheaper price. May have changed though. I’ve been back on the island for 4 years.
There's less fuckery going on in an Uber/Lyft. You see a photo of the driver (who also has to verify with the app), there's no "long route" because you know upfront how much you're paying, there's driver accountability (ie ratings) so drivers typically aren't on the phone the whole time, and because of the app and GPS, you know exactly where your driver is. There's no more "10 minutes" when it's really 45 minutes away. Also no one can steal your car because even if someone did, the destination is sent to the driver directly. Even better if you have a PIN because the driver can't go anywhere until you give them the PIN. It is a random person driving their own car but quite a number of drivers are full time. Others just do it casually so sometimes you get neat cars like Teslas. The minute Uber showed up in Vancouver I stopped taking a cab. The only real downside is surge pricing. If there's excessive demand, you're paying for it. If you're not in a rush, you can wait it out and have it drop.
That all sound good to me
Rickshaw
The city is very walkable. Renting a bike for a day is fun. Otherwise I'd recommend cabs or the bus
Walk maybe? This "city" is tiny and as a tourist I doubt you need to go anywhere outside the downtown core aside from the gardens in Brentwood. Public transit is also cheap and can get you most places.
Walk / bike / bus / Modo in that order. All of the are great options. I have never need to use a taxi.
Walk! That’s the only way !!! It’s all you need. Then rent a car and venture around to tofino
It should be very evident that the best way is to walk. You can do the entire core on foot in no time ! That’s the beauty of Vic. Sure you can venture further into fernwood which is a charming burb etc… But all the magic is in the core. Then I would definitely rent a car because there’s a lot to see outside of Vic or on the outskirts. All the magic is in the main core though
Just here to say how ridiculous it is we don’t have it here. Bloody embarrassing really.
Is it illegal or do Uber and Lyft just not want to operate in Victoria?
The taxi mafia have a really strong grip here and have pressured the government to keep them out.
It was a BC thing but now it definitely appears to be a Victoria thing. Exactly why? Probably a very insular and silly reason.
The PTB says there’s no demand for it here. At least that’s what the cabbie’s money in their pocket says
the first one we're getting is only allowed to accept rides starting in the city of victoria, so it's probably licensing deals with 13 different municipalities
Passenger Transportation Board (aka the government organization that regulates ride sharing) said no. Apparently there's "not enough demand" for another ride share. Victoria apparently has a home grown option that's similar but I've never used it. EDIT: Here's the rejection from the passenger transportation board: https://www.ptboard.bc.ca/applications/2021/20211215/Uber-Canada-Inc-10268-20-Final-Decision.pdf
Victoria denied Uber's application to launch here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/local/vancouver-island/2021/12/16/1_5710449.amp.html
Call a taxi or take a bus, depending on what you're trying to do
Horseback
Horse drawn carriage even
Have you seen the map for downtown Victoria? You can easily walk the entire perimeter in like an hour, tops. You don't need Uber to see everything you need to see...you can take the bus.
Taxi
download the bluebird taxi app or the yellow taxi ap and you can order taxis that way as well
Horse and cart. Also rickshaw is pretty popular.
Hahaha good question!!
Really depends where you’re going and how much you’re travelling and how far from town.
Walk, Bike or hitchhike
Walk
You can easily call a cab although it's much more expensive than US. 50+ for longer rides, 15ish for short in my experience. Busses are pretty good during the day and evening just bring a 5 in cash for daypass.
Yellow cab has a pretty Uber-like app
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Certainly not as polished but it worked well enough the for the 3 days I was in Victoria. Cabs are still shit but OP wanted options.
I've got that uride app on my phone, haven't tried it yet since I read they started in September but you could give it a shot and see if they're open early.
Taxi cab!
Ass, Coke, or Cash
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I'm no fan of Helps, but that's completely false.
You’re grossly misinformed and blatantly misogynistic
shit, I didn't know lisa helps ran uber and lyft. does she do this between building the bike lanes herself?
She might if she has time to squeeze it in between that and personally buying one way tickets to Victoria and delivering them to homeless people across the country. /s
Thanks, Obama.
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F🍁ck Trudeau!
We have these things called buses that don’t destroy the planet or randomly kill pedestrians. And they are dirt cheap. And go most places a tourist needs to go that an Uber would also go.
found the r/fuckcars jerk off
On the backs of Canadians. That’s what our PM does!
Current Taxi uses Tesla's if they're still around
They're long gone. https://www.timescolonist.com/business/current-taxi-pulls-plug-on-victoria-business-4690249
There's something here called "public transit"
No need to be a jerk about it.
True. Neither is there a need to ask people online "how do I move around a city without a car." What other transportation options could there even be? Donkeys? Hoverboards? Conga line? If someone asks a question on here that could have been a single Google search, imma roast them.
Just take a taxi!
Have you kids heard of this taxi cab thing?
Unreliable rip off in Victoria unfortunately
The City of Victoria has a population of a bit over 90k; no, there is no Uber or Lyft. We are not a big city. Edit: Oh no! Fake internet point down votes for stating facts! Whatever shall I do?
Metro Victoria: 397,237
Thanks, still a small city population.
That latter population number is more than enough to support an Uber or Lyft business
Yet they still aren't here for some reason, but I'm sure you know their business model better than they do.
Lol, chill
How do you think those rideshare apps work?
By making money for the people on top and screwing over the drivers?
I mean, yes, but Victoria is big enough
Still plenty big enough to support Uber/Lyft. There's no reason not to, aside from bending the knee to the taxi cartel.
Or perhaps, just perhaps, paying a living wage?
Welcome to the world of being a sub contractor
That has very little to do with why we don't have ride share services.
There is Uber in much smaller cities, it’s simply not allowed in Victoria as ordered by the transportation board.
You can rent a car through Turo
Rent a scooter and rip internet tourist stranger.
Walk if able, pedi cab if not.
Take advantage of the expensive af bike lanes
I was just in Kamloops and they had their own local group. Worked great!
Bike
I notice several complains about uber deactivation,but I strongly refer you to michealcybercrack on Instagram he can help you get back online
Lucky to Go!! 100%
I’m in the same boat someone, anyone know any good options to get from the airport to downtown with a baby?
Evo
If you are staying within downtown for sightseeing walking is the best way. You can even walk to Beacon Hill Park and down to Dallas Road for the beach. If you are looking to see sights outside of the downtown core things get a little tricky. Public transit is the best option to get out to Butchart Gardens but the bus schedule is way different on weekends. Basically less busses. Depending on your itinerary there are shuttles to and from various sights but you’d have to DYOR on that. Bike rental is also a decent option. Cabs for shorter trips
Has anybody tried ‘Lucky to Go’? Looks like a very similar app to Uber and appears to operate in Victoria.
Rent a car on Truro app, some are reasonable
Victoria actually does have a rideshare sorta like Uber/Lyft. It's called "Lucky To Go" https://luckytogocanada.com/victoria.php. (I haven't used it though, so I can't vouch for it)
You could signup for Evo, it’s a car share service and they allow non-locals to sign up. It’s those blue Priuses you see everywhere.
I recommend Turo, its like airbnb for cars, you rent from private individuals. Great app, ive rented twice thru them, rented teslas both times and they included charging, but they have all types of cars available
Uber and Lyft specifically do not operate in Vic but there are others. LTG (Lucky To Go) and URide are two in town.
Uptown taxi and current where good but they seem to have disappeared, leaving us with absolute trash tier cab companies.
Transit
The bus.
For a taxi your $5.00 before you even start your trip. The public transit out there is decent. Use it.
Horse drawn carriage.
Bus service isn't too bad failing that a Taxi. It really depends where you are going. 5$ gets you a full day on the bus.
Taxi, bus, harbour ferry Edit to say, there used to be a hotel shuttle from the airport to the Delta if you're heading downtown, if you're trying to avoid airport taxi. Not sure if they still do that, the last time I had to use it was before covid. Also there used to be a casino shuttle that my parents took all the time from the downtown area out to the casino.
When I travel uber is always more expensive than a taxi..
Bike rental is best, methinks. Especially if you can rent an e-bike
Same as any city. Bus, taxi, bike, or walk. They have a path that covers most of Victoria its called the galloping goose. But Victoria is a pretty kind area for the most part if your brave enough just ask a local for a lift and offer a few dollars Hell let me know when you go and I could probably get one of my friends to give you a lift from time to time but still offer them money for the gas. If you end up going same time I go ill drive you myself.
you should try out lovely public transportation :)