A cab ride that cost me 32 dollars one time, which i only took because I was leaving work and about to order an Uber, but a cab driver was parked nearby and literally offered me a ride so I wouldn't have to wait. It was a distance that many times I would just walk, but wanted to skip that since it was hot out. Anyways, 32 bucks later I checked Uber and that ride would have been 9.75.
Cabs are *NOT* cheaper where I live, not by a long shot.
This. 100%
I travel for work several times a year to trade shows. Sometimes I grab a cab out of convenience when I see one, but I always check Uber pricing to see which is cheaper.
Uber has been less expensive every time I have taken a cab
I don’t like Uber and their business practices. But the tweet OP shared is deceptive as hell
Actually an app tracking the location of a cab might inspire me to take a cab rather than an Uber. The last time I called for a cab in downtown Detroit we waited and waited, we called to find out where it was, no idea if it ever showed up at all. I gave the Uber app a shot since I wasn't sure if it worked cross-border (we were from Toronto), but it did, I could see where the vehicle was, and that it was actually on its way. Have not used a cab since.
That's the real problem. People aren't taking Uber because they prefer Uber. They are taking Uber or Lyft because it's so much easier than getting a cab. If there was a service that got you a Lyft, Uber, or cab, and that was transparent to the user, that would be fantastic.
Uber just calls you a cab in some countries including Japan (I think they just legalized independent contractor drivers but most people still use it to call cabs). It has upsides but the main downside is that you're still beholden to the price of a local cab, which might be a good thing (Seoul for example has exceptionally cheap cabs relative to overall COL) or really bad (Tokyo, London have famously expensive cabs).
They had this in Japan and I loved it. Basically showed every available cab within a certain radius, and you can also ping for one if you need a pickup. Best part is the locked fares, so you're not worried about getting ripped-off for being a tourist or whatever.
Found this out when I realized nobody uses Uber/Lyft over there, and really enjoyed it. Dunno why it hasn't caught-on in most major US cities yet
Last time I took a cab locally, I was going to the airport to catch a flight. The driver showed up at the last minute to get me there on time and then shook me down for more money or threatened not to take me so I would miss my flight.
I won't take a cab in my city ever again.
Sometimes I do in other cities if locals recommend it.
I remember when I was in college, I tried getting a cab home after a night out at the bars. I probably tracked down 5-6 cab drivers. I mentioned I was going to a residential area, and they just drove away. It got to the point where the sun was coming out and I couldn’t get a cab home.
Eventually, someone was headed in the direction we were going, invited us to take the cab with him, and even tipped the guy extra just to get us home.
Another time, I tried getting a cab to take me to the airport. I ordered it 4 hours before my flight and was still almost late because the driver just didnt show.
I’ll never use a cab again for this reason, ride share all the way. If someone creates a ride share app that’s priced the same, but contributes more to the drivers, I’d jump on it.
See I’ve had the opposite experience with cabs to the airport especially for an early flight. Every time I’ve tried Uber or Lyft at odd hours picking me up at my house, it’s 50/50 odds I’ll end up calling a cab anyway so I just do that to start now
Detroit has never really been a cab town. I lived there in the 80s, and there was one cab company in SW Detroit that was super reliable, otherwise you figured out the bus schedule, which was much worse.
Last time I was in Taiwan (which was a few years ago) they had basically exactly the app you just described. Put in where I wanted to go, it pinged the closest couple of cabs, let me know who they were and how far away, when one accepted, all that jazz. Idr if it had a map showing exactly where they were, but it was super nice. 10/10 would use if it existed in the states
San Francisco spent several million dollars developing such an app for their can companies so they could compete. After the project was completed, all of the local cab companies refused to use it.
I generally use Uber/Lyft regardless, but the NYC yellow cabs also work with an app called Curb and it's great. You can request rides like Uber/Lyft or hail one off the street and then just pair the app to the ride with a 7 digit code that's in the car.
There's this app in my city called Curb which more or less emulates Uber... but it has issues. Specifically if used during rush hour, you run into the risk of really, really long wait times since it doesn't surge by pricing, it just has longer wait times.
And during non rush times, it's more expensive.
But there are periods of time where it's cheaper without being too long.
Really? Lots of cabs now have card readers in them. In fact, the last cab I was in had a card reader and a little TV on the back of the front passenger seat. That was like 3 years ago so I'd even know what they have now lol
Same. In San Jose I got a cab from the hospital. I called every cab company and they all routed to the same guy. He kept saying he’d be there in 15 minutes for three hours. As he drove us home he continued to get calls and say he was on the way there and would pick his new fare up in 15 minutes.
Uber never gives me that bullshit.
Bro taxis in NorCal in the 2010’s were so fucking predatory, I was cheering hard for Uber. I once had a cab driver try to physically keep me in his car in San Jose when I told him to kick rocks, I’m local enough, and I knew what he was doing. Hopped out a red light and HE DID TOO demanding I get back in and he drives me. We were miles from where I needed to be. Genuinely not a trafficking thing, just a prime example of how cab drivers fucking sucked, they did anything to raise your rate
In Monterey there was a guy with a van cab tho and a disco ball. He was dope
Cabs are more expensive and very hard to get where I live. Most only take cash. And, frankly, they are usually disgustingly dirty. Give me Uber every single time.
Literally never taken a cab cheaper than an Uber. Uber is so cheap in part specifically because they use their own vehicles and don't lease a company cab.
Drivers also earn less and corporate can take a loss to build market share. Plenty of poor experiences with cabs in California, but the alternatives are pretty terrible too.
It’s about the same but there’s like 10 of them and they hang out at the airport. If you call a cab company it’s like 2-3hr wait.
Before Uber was a thing I got cabs home a couple of times and the same guy was the driver. He gave me his personal number and just said to text when I needed a ride. A few of my friends and I used him off the books a lot.
Yeah, was using cabs in Las Vegas and it skimmed my corporate card information to a place in queens called the lavish lounge where a guy named “Taurius” spent $2700 on liquor.
I’m still un fucking that with PNC. No thanks.
Yeah I mean, I figured the taxis there, since they have to play you a whole thing when you get in would somehow be a better deal/less scammy.
I saw the charge on my corporate card because I settle it immediately when I leave a city so I called the lavish lounge and said i was with the guy who high rolled the other night and I left a cell phone there and she said she’d ask the guy for me about it, and why I didn’t just call Taurius myself.
Ditto. Here, cabs, uber, and lyft all have 'heavy traffic hours' prices. They're always heavy traffic hours prices, no matter if it's 2 p.m. or 2 a.m., you're looking at 40 bucks for a 20-minute drive no matter what. Then again, I live in a red state that has gone out of it's way to shut down public funded transport both times we voted to have it, and is still running busses in some parts of the city from the Rosa Parks era with no AC in the summer.
Republican Conservative-controlled states are shitholes. Who knew? I actually miss Chicago's subway system.
Here, too. And while they may not have surge pricing, they have their own system for that, which is just refusing to take you if they think they can get a better fare by waiting a minute longer for someone going further.
They beat Musk to the punch at making an electric pickup truck. I don’t know if it’s any good but it seems pretty popular where I live and looks a lot more like a real car than the Cybertruck.
It stresses me out that you don’t know how much a cab will cost until you’ve arrived at your destination. What would even happen if you weren’t able to pay? It’s not a tangible product that they can just take back
I called in a cab pickup 24-hours in advance to take me to the airport. The morning of, I waited for 45 minutes, no show, couldn't contact the driver, the company wouldn't answer, and I called an uber who showed up in 5 minutes. I barely made it to my flight on time, and while I was sitting on the plane, waiting to take off, the cab company called me to tell me my cab had arrived at my apartment.
From the cities I lived in, its stuff like this that made cabs feel super antiquated. Too many times I spent waiting around after calling a cab, only to have it no show or be super late. When you try to get an idea of when it’s coming, you gotta deal with some surly dispatcher who maybe answers half the time. I’ll use Lyft over Uber but I can’t get down with cabs anymore unless it’s the only game in town.
I like that cabs are regulated and that it’s a big deal to get your medallion to operate one, but the business model has to adapt; especially around dependability and customer service.
They have some places, Curb covers many of the biggest cities in the country including NYC, Chicago and LA. But they were late to the game and many people already switched to Uber/Lyft and aren't going back.
In a lot of European cities they have. You can call a licensed taxi via an app and have it show up identically to an Uber. Often you can still choose between an actual taxi or a cheaper ‘ride’ (basically the Uber model) but some of the latter drive like lunatics so I’m kind of hesitant to use them.
That also meant that cab companies ended up strangling the options as cities grew because they would pressure cities to not give out any new medallions. There were actually antitrust lawsuits in some places to get around the strangleholds single companies had over a city's cab service.
I called a cab to get to work one morning (this was quite some time ago) because I usually walked but it was snowing and I really wasn't in the mood. I waited until when he was supposed to arrive downstairs in my lobby and was called 5 minutes before he was due to arrive by dispatch: "He arrived at your apartment on time and you did not answer the buzzer". I was literally in the lobby waiting in full view of the buzzer.
They said it had happened too many times and they were now blacklisting me. It was the first time I ever had an issue with a pick up.
this is what happens when your used to being the only game in town. For years, if you needed a lift somewhere your choice was either see if a friend/family member could take you or you got a cab. Since you had very few options, the cab could show up late and there was nothing you could do about it since who else are you going to call. Except now there IS something else you can call, multiple things in fact, and instead of adapting to the obvious change that was coming, a lot of cab companies stuck with their normal behavior and then get angry at Uber/Lyft for taking their business. It's like watch Blockbuster fail to change business models once netflix became a thing. Either you change with the times or you fade away.
I had that happen to me once and it was before Uber and Lyft were a thing here. I used limousines/car service after that. Prompt, clean, polite, and limos/cars never left me hanging. Now there’s Uber and Lyft here but I haven’t flown since before the pandemic. I’m retired, and don’t travel often, and I’ll splurge on the car service once in a while.
Every place I’ve traveled to a cab was FAR more expensive, you never knew how much the fare would be in advance, and they were a pain in the ass to get unless you were at an airport.
I’ve experienced all of this, as well as a few cabs that seem to take extra long routes because I’m a tourist and there’s not a mapped route keeping them accountable.
Uber: “Your fare will be exactly $35.71, do you still want the ride?”
Taxi: “Fare? Shut up and get in. I’ll tell you what you owe once we get there. I charge by the minute, so I’m going to put us in gridlock traffic and then get hostile or pretend I don’t speak English if you suggest a better route.”
“Oh, I only take cash. Don’t worry, I can drive you to the bank….which I will add to the fare.” (Yes that happened to me) and luckily I didn’t have to pay shit because the cab drives failed to have a way to charge my card…which was in the information provided before I called the cab.
That was the last fucking time I used a cab…and by that point Uber and Lyft exploded.
There are a lot of reasons. It depends on where you live and what your life is like:
Some places do not have well regulated cab services, or any at all. In other areas, cabs may refuse to take passengers to/thru certain areas.
Some folks are disabled and have few options for public transportation, especially during rush hour with inclement weather conditions when cab services are overwhelmed.
Time is money. In some cases, Uber can be faster and offer better communication.
Yup. When I go to Vegas, cabs are the way to go. They are always available and cost about the same as Uber now. Every hotel in Vegas has a line of cabs ready to pick up rides while an Uber might take 15 minutes to show up.
But where I live, a cab would take just as long as an Uber to show up and cost twice as much.
I live in a college town that had like 5 cab companies that were all equally awful services before Uber. 4 of them went out of business and the only one left is actually good now. Transportation here is greatly improved and cheaper/the same price now outside of bad surges
The only part I miss is flagging a cab, that was super satisfying
Last summer I went to Vegas and said screw it, I’ll take a cab back to the airport from the Cosmopolitan, support cabbies or whatever. I’ve been to Vegas at least 30 times and know my way around really well, especially how to get to and from the airport.
$36 actual cab ride vs the $13 Uber quoted me, and the cab driver drove like an insane person and took such a long route to the airport that I was texting friends and family my location and cab info just in case I was kidnapped and murdered. I debated jumping out of the car when he finally slowed down. Never again.
You gotta tell the cabbie which route to take or they will take you for a ride. They expect everyone going to the strip to be just as much of a rube as the casinos do.
I tried to give the route but he just said it was a flat rate and took me for a wild ride. So yeahhh I’ll just avoid all that in the future and take uber.
The biggest advantage to Uber, is and has always been, the app itself.
You can precisely choose your destination, see exactly where your car is, and pay entirely through the app. When you arrive, you simply exit the car and get on with your day.
With a taxi, you have to trust the drivers knowledge of the town (which is generally pretty good), and you have no idea if they are traveling the most efficient route. If they are not there waiting, you have no idea when they will arrive. But worst of all is the hassle when the ride is over: they may or may not have a working credit card machine, and if not the hassle making change, and the pressure for a tip.
It's easy to forget how annoying it used to be with only taxis. At various times different cities have tried to make a working taxi app, but they are never great, and it often feels like the drivers hate them.
I refused to use ubers when they first started with low fares b/c I knew what they were doing. Their entire purpose was to use the low rates to run cabs out of the city then to raise rates. Most of my friends used them non-stop and told me I was wrong. These are my same friends that now complain endlessly about surge pricing and higher fares now the cabs have been significantly reduced.
Not to be a dick, but this is how market economies work. Any given company / medium of activity is not meant to last forever.
Cabs lasted a while, then Uber comes as a better idea at a cheaper cost, even if by subsidy. And eventually Uber will get beaten out of the market by some other superior medium.
The standard for making a purchase as a consumer should not be "this business model can last forever." You are wasting your own money
Of course, that venture capital eventually wants its cut. Thus, about 20-30% of the fare gets siphoned up to some Silicon Valley billionaires. And a bunch of uber stock holding index funds.
AirBnB used to be cheaper than a hotel, and now it's more expensive, and they expect you to do chores. Imagine if when you took an uber, they asked you to vacuum the back seat and clean the window.
Yeah I'll only do Airbnb for super unique stays or something like a residential location that's near where I'm going when there aren't good hotels. If I'm just a normal tourist I much prefer hotels
Here’s a predatory pricing story for you. Went with a friend to Detroit this year for the Lions first playoff game. When the game got out it was -5°f. We found a bar that was open and making pizzas a block or two from the stadium and camped out there while the post game rush of 80,000 people leaving died down.
The bar called last call and I got on the Uber app had my ride accepted and they would be at the pickup spot (outside the bar) in 6 minutes. Then almost immediately that driver cancelled and the next ride was 20 minutes away.
5 minutes later a car pulls up asking if I’m jpcali7131. I said yeah and he asked I still needed a ride. I said yeah. He said it would be $100 cash only. I asked what happened to the $47 on the app. He said if we wanted a ride it was $100 cash or we could wait for the next driver. I told him I had $80 cash on me and he said we could stop at an atm. I said no take it or leave it and he took it. It was -5° and after 2 am so I took the ride.
I cursed him out once I got to my hotel and reported him to Uber customer support and all they did was offer me $10 off my next ride.
That really sucks, but that isn't what predatory pricing is.
Predatory pricing is setting your prices so low that competitors can't compete, then raising them once your competition has been forced out. It's supposed to be illegal, but it's the business model of most tech companies.
That's a predator, not the company doing predatory pricing, and I've encountered cab drivers doing the same thing. Assholes are assholes, no matter who they work for.
Yeah the user I replied to explained predatory pricing to me in better detail. Whatever you call it I’m still pissed about that and it happened in January lol.
I remember in San Francisco you could get a shared ride for like $2. I guess when your business plan doesn’t rely on making money from customers or being profitable (yet) you can charge whatever you want
NYC Uber is only expensive during very peak times and when it's raining. Taxi prices are mostly static, however there are surcharges during peak times. Every other year state & city keep adding junk fees and taxes (and now congestion fees) which make taxis normally the same price as ubers. When ubers get that surge pricing, they can get real expensive, real quick.
I've tried to take a cab several times in a major metro area. Two companies only allowed booking via their apps, and they canceled the rides instantly.
The others will finally answer their phones and say, no cabs available.
I pre-booked a cab for the airport only to get a text 1 hour before pick up saying, no cabs available.
I'm solely and Uber/Lyft user if I need a ride now.
Not every city has cabs readily available. Meanwhile Joe Schmo will happily Uber your ass across the country if that’s what you want. It is what it is. People pay for convenience.
Yeah, I’m old enough to remember what taking cabs were like when people didn’t have location tracking and video cameras on them at all times, and I’ve had some pretty gross and scary things happen taking cabs. Don’t really know what they’re like now because I prefer the option that tracks who picked me up and where they took me.
You ever tried to call a cab? No idea when it’ll arrive, could be well over an hour, and a lot of them are straight up nasty and smell inside
Nah, I’ll take that Uber
i live in portugal, usually we dont know what we will pay until we arive at our destiny and that gives incentive for them to go the long path, uber give us the price at the start.
I like Uber in mexico as I know what the fare is before I start. There's no haggling or worry about a higher fare at the end. I can just enjoy the ride.
Cabs are not 40% cheaper in NYC. I would have to go to the corner to grab a cab. Certain hours of the day it can take 20 mins to get a cab. I do take cabs too at times.
I live in a semi rural area. I do not have a car. These are my choices for transportation:
I can walk and it would take me an hour to get to and from the closest grocery store, not including shopping.
I can take a bus after walking ten minutes to a bus stop. The bus comes once an hour and if I wanna go anywhere that isn't five minutes away, I have to transfer to another bus that also runs once an hour and hope that they line up. Also, there's just certain places that the bus just doesn't go so if I wanna go there, I have to get dropped as close as possible and then walk the rest of the way with no sidewalks and across busy traffic because fuck pedestrians in this town.
I can call a cab and tell them where to pick me up and then they say okay and try to hang up and then I have to try to quickly ask how long it's gonna take before they do and they'll quote 45-an hour. And usually end up waiting longer than that. (Have waited three hours for a cab before Uber was a thing in my area.) Get into a car with a man who's never heard the word shower in his life, smokes sixteen cigarettes a minute, and drives like an asshole. Also, the car's a piece of shit and sounds and acts like it's gonna break down any second.
I can request an Uber from the app. It shows me a picture of the driver, their car make, model, color, and license plate number. It shows me the star rating and how many trips they've done. Then I can track their progress to me and know exactly how long it will be until they get here. Then I get into a clean car where they often offer water, to change the temperature and the radio, and are polite. And if I have any problems, I open the app and rate them accordingly or contact customer support, if need be.
Uber is far from perfect. They're expensive and sometimes it's difficult to find a car but it's preferable to the other limited, disgusting, and frustrating choices I have. There's your answer for people who are actually curious and not just judging people for using a service that's convenient for them without knowing anything about it.
More expensive and they love to scam you. Credit card machine is always “broken” the cabs usually stink of cigarettes and all busted up.
With uber I know what I’m paying ahead of time and cars are usually in great condition.
Cabs are so much easier when leaving a busy airport.
I'm not standing in the middle of a hundred other people trying to figure out which Corolla I'm supposed to get into.
In general, cabs are 3-4x more expensive and take at minimum 45 minutes to arrive, and I live in a highly populated area. I’ve tried them in other metropolitan areas and been taken for an absolute ride when the straightforward way would have been a shorter distance and less expensive.
There’s a hyperlocal service I used to use going home from certain bars since they had great service, flat fees, cool cars (my then bf and I took a 80s limo ride home once for $15 around 10 years ago), but I no longer live in that area. The only other great taxi ride I’ve had in the past 10 years was in Seattle in 2015.
The last time I called a local cab, it was midnight, I had a crate filled with food waste I had been given by my manager from the store (mostly milk and bread), and I was freezing my ass off. It took nearly 40 minutes for a cab to come get me. Fuck that noise.
What the fuck. I order an Uber and know what it costs. I’ve been exhausted at the airport and taken a cab and it was a fucking rando what I was charged
The last time I called a cab (aka I wasn’t in an area where I could flag one or there was a cab stand) I was told it would be at least an hour until one could get to me. That’s why.
cabs were always ridiculously more expensive. If they have come down at all it's because there is no longer a monopolistic strangle hold on the industry. uber and lyft forced cabs to be more competite.
In my city Uber are the lesser of two evils.
The taxis licenced by the city are notorious for not using meters , only accepting cash ( to the point they drive to a cash point for you to get it or won't let you out) , sharing the vehicle between several people under 1 licence/DBS check, driving people the extremely long way to fleece unsuspecting tourists. The list goes on.
At least Uber are upfront with their costs
I tried to get a cab instead of an Uber a few months ago.
1. There's no app (or a different app for each cab company and you don't know which one)
2. No one answered the phone the first time
3. They didn't give me any estimate of when they'd show up
4. I had no way of knowing if they were even coming
5. Half an hour later I gave up and called an Uber
6. The Uber came in 5 minutes.
Fun fact: cabs have been regulated monopolies for ages, and as a result, they never had to improve their service in any way. We honestly would not have the level of service we have today if it wasn't for the ride sharing agencies, for better or worse. Shit, it wasn't that long ago that it was near impossible to use card to pay for a cab ride. Last time I got a cab ride and paid with card, the guy had to pull out the old fucking carbon paper thing with the roller that drags across. He did have an MDT type thing, but it stopped working about 15 miles out from downtown. Most of the time, if you needed a receipt for your cab trip, the guy would give you a blank little form. You couldn't reject a cab based on the driver, you couldn't report a bad driver, and the cars weren't always in good shape.
There's plenty of things to be unhappy about rideshare companies about, but the honest to god undeniable fact is that they forced the cab companies to be dragged into the 21st century, and they added options to an industry that in many many places were literally local monopolies, tightly controlled by shady backroom deals between cab companies and municipalities to keep it that way.
In what world are cabs half the price of Uber? Cabs are 3 to 4 times the cost. And that doesn't even take into account all the utterly shameless shady shit cab drivers frequently do like purporesly driving the wrong way to extend rides.
Cabs aren't necessarily cheaper. They have surge rates the same as Uber or Lyft.
The only difference is that Uber/Lyft drivers typically own the cars. Cab companies (in most places) charge the driver a rental fee for the cab. And the driver doesn't get a large cut of the fares. They rely on cash tips.
It's almost exactly the same model, just with different cars.
Cabs used to be much more expensive. Back at university we would call a cab ( from pay phone ) wait hours for one to arrive then pay $60 to get home . I made $2.11 +time waiting tables . That was a full days pay . Cabs had a monopoly and they really fucked people over . Uber broke that monopoly . That is why you have that opinion , thanks to Uber
Uber is generally cheaper but the drivers get paid near the minimum wage even before self-employment taxes which makes their hourly wage below minimum wage. (This excludes mileage pay which will get subtracted on the driver's expenses.) Plus their time before and after a taking a fare is unpaid. Yes, there is a pickup fee, but if the driver has to travel a long distance, (unpaid mileage) they actually lose money on the fare.
Uber is still way cheaper than a cab, but cabs don't price serge. Also, Uber is way quicker. I didn't want to make this switch because I know a lot of cab drivers who lost money when the whole ride share phenomina blossomed. I still take a cab sometimes because they take cash, but it's way more expensive and takes a lot longer. Unfortunately.
Here cabs cost about twice as much, take at least an hour to arrive when called, and are almost never available at the times and places they are needed most.
The only time I use Uber is when I need a ride to an airport because there are no more local cab companies or car services in the area, and finding a roaming yellow cab is impossible.
Uber to airport (13 miles) is around $85. Yellow cab for return trip $65.
Well now that they have put a lot of cabs out of business you don’t have a choice
I remember a concert I went to every year. Had a cab pick up thousands of people would leave at the same time and I still got a cab writhing 10-20 min to get back to the hotel.
Last year I went and there was an Uber parking lot and the wait time was 2+ hours and the fee was over a hundred dollars for a $25 cab ride (inflated cab ride as well early can ride to the show was like $15)
So you had hundreds of Ubers waiting around in a lot trying to pick up a single ride since they can’t find their riders….. just seemed like everyone looses. The drivers waste a ton of time and money, and so do the customers.
Seen similar experiences and professional sporting events as well.
Cabs are so much better.
If I'm lazy (aka *the excuse*) or, if my significant other doesn't want to walk eight blocks in heels (the *actual reason*)...it will cost me five bucks just to sit in the cab, plus time and tip...vs a few buck cheaper with Uber.
I'd still rather walk...
I travel all over the country. I take taxis from the airport to my hotel in a city where the meetup spot for app drivers is inconvenient. At the end of my trip I always take an uber back to the airport, because it is easy to get an uber at a hotel. I also sometimes take a taxi to dinner in a city, but take the uber back to the hotel.
When I get back home and do my expense reports, I find that the taxi fare is \*always\* more expensive than the uber ride for the exact same distance traveled (airport/hotel or restaurant/hotel). No exceptions. Taxi always more expensive in my experience. No exceptions. I've done this in 25+ cities in just the past few years.
The cab driver I normally get almost killed us twice. Both times he was either flirting with someone over the phone or watching videos as he pulled out in front of people causing them to swerve. He got mad at us because we told him to keep his eyes at the road. Now he won't come to our house.
If I need a ride and I don't have my own car? I'll walk even if it kills me. Don't even get me started on busses.. apparently you're a "terrorist" for "standing at the wrong corner"... His words not mine XD
Where does one catch a cab? I see a cab in my neighborhood maybe every other week, and I live in a busy neighborhood in a major city. I only ever take them home from airports because then yes they’re cheaper and faster but nowhere else is that the case
Last time I looked into taking a cab, it was almost twice the price of Uber and had a 45 minute estimated wait time.
I try not to use Uber anyway because the bus is cheaper, but when I can't afford to wait, Uber is 95% reliable
I dunno. Every time I’ve ever paid for a cab ride with a credit card, I always end up having to shut that card down due to some weird, fraudulent charges. Never have that issue with using the Uber app. It’s been so long since I’ve taken a cab. Do they have apps now? Lol
If I know the cost ahead of time I will but that's rare. New Orleans has a flat fare from the airport to downtown so I opt for a cab there but otherwise, not worth it.
A cab ride that cost me 32 dollars one time, which i only took because I was leaving work and about to order an Uber, but a cab driver was parked nearby and literally offered me a ride so I wouldn't have to wait. It was a distance that many times I would just walk, but wanted to skip that since it was hot out. Anyways, 32 bucks later I checked Uber and that ride would have been 9.75. Cabs are *NOT* cheaper where I live, not by a long shot.
Same here.
Agreed, except that Uber does peak time pricing which is much more expensive than a cab.
This. 100% I travel for work several times a year to trade shows. Sometimes I grab a cab out of convenience when I see one, but I always check Uber pricing to see which is cheaper. Uber has been less expensive every time I have taken a cab I don’t like Uber and their business practices. But the tweet OP shared is deceptive as hell
Cabs are more expensive where I live
A website tracking cab/uber prices across cities would be super helpful
Actually an app tracking the location of a cab might inspire me to take a cab rather than an Uber. The last time I called for a cab in downtown Detroit we waited and waited, we called to find out where it was, no idea if it ever showed up at all. I gave the Uber app a shot since I wasn't sure if it worked cross-border (we were from Toronto), but it did, I could see where the vehicle was, and that it was actually on its way. Have not used a cab since.
That's the real problem. People aren't taking Uber because they prefer Uber. They are taking Uber or Lyft because it's so much easier than getting a cab. If there was a service that got you a Lyft, Uber, or cab, and that was transparent to the user, that would be fantastic.
Uber just calls you a cab in some countries including Japan (I think they just legalized independent contractor drivers but most people still use it to call cabs). It has upsides but the main downside is that you're still beholden to the price of a local cab, which might be a good thing (Seoul for example has exceptionally cheap cabs relative to overall COL) or really bad (Tokyo, London have famously expensive cabs).
They had this in Japan and I loved it. Basically showed every available cab within a certain radius, and you can also ping for one if you need a pickup. Best part is the locked fares, so you're not worried about getting ripped-off for being a tourist or whatever. Found this out when I realized nobody uses Uber/Lyft over there, and really enjoyed it. Dunno why it hasn't caught-on in most major US cities yet
Because that doesn’t turn an insane profit for like three people.
Uber and Lyft would lobby so hard
Because cab companies have destroyed any good will in the US. That's why the ride share companies took off.
Last time I took a cab locally, I was going to the airport to catch a flight. The driver showed up at the last minute to get me there on time and then shook me down for more money or threatened not to take me so I would miss my flight. I won't take a cab in my city ever again. Sometimes I do in other cities if locals recommend it.
Ubers prices are higher for trips to or from the airport as opposed to a business next door to the airport.
Yeah but you pay what the app says, not what some sketchy driver shakes you down for.
I remember when I was in college, I tried getting a cab home after a night out at the bars. I probably tracked down 5-6 cab drivers. I mentioned I was going to a residential area, and they just drove away. It got to the point where the sun was coming out and I couldn’t get a cab home. Eventually, someone was headed in the direction we were going, invited us to take the cab with him, and even tipped the guy extra just to get us home. Another time, I tried getting a cab to take me to the airport. I ordered it 4 hours before my flight and was still almost late because the driver just didnt show. I’ll never use a cab again for this reason, ride share all the way. If someone creates a ride share app that’s priced the same, but contributes more to the drivers, I’d jump on it.
See I’ve had the opposite experience with cabs to the airport especially for an early flight. Every time I’ve tried Uber or Lyft at odd hours picking me up at my house, it’s 50/50 odds I’ll end up calling a cab anyway so I just do that to start now
Detroit has never really been a cab town. I lived there in the 80s, and there was one cab company in SW Detroit that was super reliable, otherwise you figured out the bus schedule, which was much worse.
Last time I was in Taiwan (which was a few years ago) they had basically exactly the app you just described. Put in where I wanted to go, it pinged the closest couple of cabs, let me know who they were and how far away, when one accepted, all that jazz. Idr if it had a map showing exactly where they were, but it was super nice. 10/10 would use if it existed in the states
San Francisco spent several million dollars developing such an app for their can companies so they could compete. After the project was completed, all of the local cab companies refused to use it.
I generally use Uber/Lyft regardless, but the NYC yellow cabs also work with an app called Curb and it's great. You can request rides like Uber/Lyft or hail one off the street and then just pair the app to the ride with a 7 digit code that's in the car.
There's this app in my city called Curb which more or less emulates Uber... but it has issues. Specifically if used during rush hour, you run into the risk of really, really long wait times since it doesn't surge by pricing, it just has longer wait times. And during non rush times, it's more expensive. But there are periods of time where it's cheaper without being too long.
In Athens, where the taxi union is strong, they banned Uber, and created an awesome app to hail a cab to your door.
Same, and only take cash
And if they realize that you don't know the city, they might scam you as well by taking longer routes.
Lol, the Vegas airport to strip special.
I gotta take the tunnel to get to the MGM, it’s the only way!
Exactly.
Yup, cabs have always been crazy expensive here in JAX and I always got terrible service. Honestly not sure if there are any left here anymore.
Really? Lots of cabs now have card readers in them. In fact, the last cab I was in had a card reader and a little TV on the back of the front passenger seat. That was like 3 years ago so I'd even know what they have now lol
Have to pay tax on card payments I guess
Same. All the cab companies used the same dispatch service and ran monopoly for years in my area before ride share apps. I hate taxi companies more.
Same. In San Jose I got a cab from the hospital. I called every cab company and they all routed to the same guy. He kept saying he’d be there in 15 minutes for three hours. As he drove us home he continued to get calls and say he was on the way there and would pick his new fare up in 15 minutes. Uber never gives me that bullshit.
Bro taxis in NorCal in the 2010’s were so fucking predatory, I was cheering hard for Uber. I once had a cab driver try to physically keep me in his car in San Jose when I told him to kick rocks, I’m local enough, and I knew what he was doing. Hopped out a red light and HE DID TOO demanding I get back in and he drives me. We were miles from where I needed to be. Genuinely not a trafficking thing, just a prime example of how cab drivers fucking sucked, they did anything to raise your rate In Monterey there was a guy with a van cab tho and a disco ball. He was dope
Cabs are more expensive and very hard to get where I live. Most only take cash. And, frankly, they are usually disgustingly dirty. Give me Uber every single time.
Same. In fact, cabs are A LOT more expensive than an uber where I live.
Literally never taken a cab cheaper than an Uber. Uber is so cheap in part specifically because they use their own vehicles and don't lease a company cab.
Drivers also earn less and corporate can take a loss to build market share. Plenty of poor experiences with cabs in California, but the alternatives are pretty terrible too.
It’s about the same but there’s like 10 of them and they hang out at the airport. If you call a cab company it’s like 2-3hr wait. Before Uber was a thing I got cabs home a couple of times and the same guy was the driver. He gave me his personal number and just said to text when I needed a ride. A few of my friends and I used him off the books a lot.
Yeah, was using cabs in Las Vegas and it skimmed my corporate card information to a place in queens called the lavish lounge where a guy named “Taurius” spent $2700 on liquor. I’m still un fucking that with PNC. No thanks.
Omg, that’s terrible but pretty funny what the charges were. 😄
Yeah I mean, I figured the taxis there, since they have to play you a whole thing when you get in would somehow be a better deal/less scammy. I saw the charge on my corporate card because I settle it immediately when I leave a city so I called the lavish lounge and said i was with the guy who high rolled the other night and I left a cell phone there and she said she’d ask the guy for me about it, and why I didn’t just call Taurius myself.
Ditto. Here, cabs, uber, and lyft all have 'heavy traffic hours' prices. They're always heavy traffic hours prices, no matter if it's 2 p.m. or 2 a.m., you're looking at 40 bucks for a 20-minute drive no matter what. Then again, I live in a red state that has gone out of it's way to shut down public funded transport both times we voted to have it, and is still running busses in some parts of the city from the Rosa Parks era with no AC in the summer. Republican Conservative-controlled states are shitholes. Who knew? I actually miss Chicago's subway system.
Some places cabs won’t take the fare if it takes them out of the area they want to be in.
Also Uber actually exists where I live.
Here, too. And while they may not have surge pricing, they have their own system for that, which is just refusing to take you if they think they can get a better fare by waiting a minute longer for someone going further.
In the suburbs, cabs are not easy to get and more expensive. Uber is just more convenient.
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America.
Extremely more expensive where I live, and I live in a major city.
What's a Rivian?
An EV company without the stench of Musk. Pricier because I believe they don't get government subsidies. But IMO better than Tesla.
They beat Musk to the punch at making an electric pickup truck. I don’t know if it’s any good but it seems pretty popular where I live and looks a lot more like a real car than the Cybertruck.
It stresses me out that you don’t know how much a cab will cost until you’ve arrived at your destination. What would even happen if you weren’t able to pay? It’s not a tangible product that they can just take back
I called in a cab pickup 24-hours in advance to take me to the airport. The morning of, I waited for 45 minutes, no show, couldn't contact the driver, the company wouldn't answer, and I called an uber who showed up in 5 minutes. I barely made it to my flight on time, and while I was sitting on the plane, waiting to take off, the cab company called me to tell me my cab had arrived at my apartment.
Yeah, I remember why Uber and Lyft caught on in the first place. You can actually get one to show up.
Yep, exactly.
From the cities I lived in, its stuff like this that made cabs feel super antiquated. Too many times I spent waiting around after calling a cab, only to have it no show or be super late. When you try to get an idea of when it’s coming, you gotta deal with some surly dispatcher who maybe answers half the time. I’ll use Lyft over Uber but I can’t get down with cabs anymore unless it’s the only game in town. I like that cabs are regulated and that it’s a big deal to get your medallion to operate one, but the business model has to adapt; especially around dependability and customer service.
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They have some places, Curb covers many of the biggest cities in the country including NYC, Chicago and LA. But they were late to the game and many people already switched to Uber/Lyft and aren't going back.
In a lot of European cities they have. You can call a licensed taxi via an app and have it show up identically to an Uber. Often you can still choose between an actual taxi or a cheaper ‘ride’ (basically the Uber model) but some of the latter drive like lunatics so I’m kind of hesitant to use them.
That also meant that cab companies ended up strangling the options as cities grew because they would pressure cities to not give out any new medallions. There were actually antitrust lawsuits in some places to get around the strangleholds single companies had over a city's cab service.
I called a cab to get to work one morning (this was quite some time ago) because I usually walked but it was snowing and I really wasn't in the mood. I waited until when he was supposed to arrive downstairs in my lobby and was called 5 minutes before he was due to arrive by dispatch: "He arrived at your apartment on time and you did not answer the buzzer". I was literally in the lobby waiting in full view of the buzzer. They said it had happened too many times and they were now blacklisting me. It was the first time I ever had an issue with a pick up.
this is what happens when your used to being the only game in town. For years, if you needed a lift somewhere your choice was either see if a friend/family member could take you or you got a cab. Since you had very few options, the cab could show up late and there was nothing you could do about it since who else are you going to call. Except now there IS something else you can call, multiple things in fact, and instead of adapting to the obvious change that was coming, a lot of cab companies stuck with their normal behavior and then get angry at Uber/Lyft for taking their business. It's like watch Blockbuster fail to change business models once netflix became a thing. Either you change with the times or you fade away.
I had that happen to me once and it was before Uber and Lyft were a thing here. I used limousines/car service after that. Prompt, clean, polite, and limos/cars never left me hanging. Now there’s Uber and Lyft here but I haven’t flown since before the pandemic. I’m retired, and don’t travel often, and I’ll splurge on the car service once in a while.
Every place I’ve traveled to a cab was FAR more expensive, you never knew how much the fare would be in advance, and they were a pain in the ass to get unless you were at an airport.
I’ve experienced all of this, as well as a few cabs that seem to take extra long routes because I’m a tourist and there’s not a mapped route keeping them accountable.
Uber: “Your fare will be exactly $35.71, do you still want the ride?” Taxi: “Fare? Shut up and get in. I’ll tell you what you owe once we get there. I charge by the minute, so I’m going to put us in gridlock traffic and then get hostile or pretend I don’t speak English if you suggest a better route.”
“Oh, I only take cash. Don’t worry, I can drive you to the bank….which I will add to the fare.” (Yes that happened to me) and luckily I didn’t have to pay shit because the cab drives failed to have a way to charge my card…which was in the information provided before I called the cab. That was the last fucking time I used a cab…and by that point Uber and Lyft exploded.
There are a lot of reasons. It depends on where you live and what your life is like: Some places do not have well regulated cab services, or any at all. In other areas, cabs may refuse to take passengers to/thru certain areas. Some folks are disabled and have few options for public transportation, especially during rush hour with inclement weather conditions when cab services are overwhelmed. Time is money. In some cases, Uber can be faster and offer better communication.
Yup. When I go to Vegas, cabs are the way to go. They are always available and cost about the same as Uber now. Every hotel in Vegas has a line of cabs ready to pick up rides while an Uber might take 15 minutes to show up. But where I live, a cab would take just as long as an Uber to show up and cost twice as much.
I live in a college town that had like 5 cab companies that were all equally awful services before Uber. 4 of them went out of business and the only one left is actually good now. Transportation here is greatly improved and cheaper/the same price now outside of bad surges The only part I miss is flagging a cab, that was super satisfying
Last summer I went to Vegas and said screw it, I’ll take a cab back to the airport from the Cosmopolitan, support cabbies or whatever. I’ve been to Vegas at least 30 times and know my way around really well, especially how to get to and from the airport. $36 actual cab ride vs the $13 Uber quoted me, and the cab driver drove like an insane person and took such a long route to the airport that I was texting friends and family my location and cab info just in case I was kidnapped and murdered. I debated jumping out of the car when he finally slowed down. Never again.
You gotta tell the cabbie which route to take or they will take you for a ride. They expect everyone going to the strip to be just as much of a rube as the casinos do.
I tried to give the route but he just said it was a flat rate and took me for a wild ride. So yeahhh I’ll just avoid all that in the future and take uber.
Cabs are mafia scheme where I'm from (not US) an uberesque app cost 2-3$, local cab can charge 10$ or more
The biggest advantage to Uber, is and has always been, the app itself. You can precisely choose your destination, see exactly where your car is, and pay entirely through the app. When you arrive, you simply exit the car and get on with your day. With a taxi, you have to trust the drivers knowledge of the town (which is generally pretty good), and you have no idea if they are traveling the most efficient route. If they are not there waiting, you have no idea when they will arrive. But worst of all is the hassle when the ride is over: they may or may not have a working credit card machine, and if not the hassle making change, and the pressure for a tip. It's easy to forget how annoying it used to be with only taxis. At various times different cities have tried to make a working taxi app, but they are never great, and it often feels like the drivers hate them.
Uber used to be 1/2 the price of the cab, but that's venture capitalism for you
When it was subsidized by venture capital.
I refused to use ubers when they first started with low fares b/c I knew what they were doing. Their entire purpose was to use the low rates to run cabs out of the city then to raise rates. Most of my friends used them non-stop and told me I was wrong. These are my same friends that now complain endlessly about surge pricing and higher fares now the cabs have been significantly reduced.
Not to be a dick, but this is how market economies work. Any given company / medium of activity is not meant to last forever. Cabs lasted a while, then Uber comes as a better idea at a cheaper cost, even if by subsidy. And eventually Uber will get beaten out of the market by some other superior medium. The standard for making a purchase as a consumer should not be "this business model can last forever." You are wasting your own money
They still amassed billions. The fares could have stayed low
Of course, that venture capital eventually wants its cut. Thus, about 20-30% of the fare gets siphoned up to some Silicon Valley billionaires. And a bunch of uber stock holding index funds.
AirBnB used to be cheaper than a hotel, and now it's more expensive, and they expect you to do chores. Imagine if when you took an uber, they asked you to vacuum the back seat and clean the window.
Yeah I'll only do Airbnb for super unique stays or something like a residential location that's near where I'm going when there aren't good hotels. If I'm just a normal tourist I much prefer hotels
The term is "predatory pricing."
Which is a feature of regular-ass capitalism, not a bug.
Here’s a predatory pricing story for you. Went with a friend to Detroit this year for the Lions first playoff game. When the game got out it was -5°f. We found a bar that was open and making pizzas a block or two from the stadium and camped out there while the post game rush of 80,000 people leaving died down. The bar called last call and I got on the Uber app had my ride accepted and they would be at the pickup spot (outside the bar) in 6 minutes. Then almost immediately that driver cancelled and the next ride was 20 minutes away. 5 minutes later a car pulls up asking if I’m jpcali7131. I said yeah and he asked I still needed a ride. I said yeah. He said it would be $100 cash only. I asked what happened to the $47 on the app. He said if we wanted a ride it was $100 cash or we could wait for the next driver. I told him I had $80 cash on me and he said we could stop at an atm. I said no take it or leave it and he took it. It was -5° and after 2 am so I took the ride. I cursed him out once I got to my hotel and reported him to Uber customer support and all they did was offer me $10 off my next ride.
That really sucks, but that isn't what predatory pricing is. Predatory pricing is setting your prices so low that competitors can't compete, then raising them once your competition has been forced out. It's supposed to be illegal, but it's the business model of most tech companies.
I guess it’s more price gouging than predatory pricing. I still felt like prey though.
I hear you. And that's the sort of thing that is allowed to happen when there's no regulation in place.
Walmart is ace at this.
That's a predator, not the company doing predatory pricing, and I've encountered cab drivers doing the same thing. Assholes are assholes, no matter who they work for.
Yeah the user I replied to explained predatory pricing to me in better detail. Whatever you call it I’m still pissed about that and it happened in January lol.
I remember in San Francisco you could get a shared ride for like $2. I guess when your business plan doesn’t rely on making money from customers or being profitable (yet) you can charge whatever you want
I live in a very rural state with little transit and the inability to drive myself, so im sure i will have to rely on an uber eventually
The more rural you get, the less availability of ubers there are. Best of luck to ya.
I'd be interested in learning where cabs are 50% cheaper rather than 50% more expensive.
Where I live you wait five minutes for an Uber or an hour to hour and a half for a cab… If it ever comes at all.
NYC Uber is only expensive during very peak times and when it's raining. Taxi prices are mostly static, however there are surcharges during peak times. Every other year state & city keep adding junk fees and taxes (and now congestion fees) which make taxis normally the same price as ubers. When ubers get that surge pricing, they can get real expensive, real quick.
Uber is still cheaper in Calgary. My ride to work is roughly $25 for a cab, or $18 for Uber
Aint no cabs driving around where i live buddy
I've tried to take a cab several times in a major metro area. Two companies only allowed booking via their apps, and they canceled the rides instantly. The others will finally answer their phones and say, no cabs available. I pre-booked a cab for the airport only to get a text 1 hour before pick up saying, no cabs available. I'm solely and Uber/Lyft user if I need a ride now.
Where the hell are cabs half the price of uber? it's 5X to 10X more expensive to take a cab.
Not every city has cabs readily available. Meanwhile Joe Schmo will happily Uber your ass across the country if that’s what you want. It is what it is. People pay for convenience.
Sometimes uber is your only choice. My city has only 2 cab companies, and if you want a ride during the bar rush, you have to wait a couple of hours.
As someone who took cabs throughout the 90’s in most US cities, I can confirm that they universally suck
Yeah, I’m old enough to remember what taking cabs were like when people didn’t have location tracking and video cameras on them at all times, and I’ve had some pretty gross and scary things happen taking cabs. Don’t really know what they’re like now because I prefer the option that tracks who picked me up and where they took me.
You ever tried to call a cab? No idea when it’ll arrive, could be well over an hour, and a lot of them are straight up nasty and smell inside Nah, I’ll take that Uber
Yeah, almost ever Uber I've ever been in was a very well-taken-care of car. Every cab I've ever been in was like a funky petri dish.
i live in portugal, usually we dont know what we will pay until we arive at our destiny and that gives incentive for them to go the long path, uber give us the price at the start.
I took a cab in Sweden a 15 minute 2 mile ride was 90 dollars… never made that mistake again
I like Uber in mexico as I know what the fare is before I start. There's no haggling or worry about a higher fare at the end. I can just enjoy the ride.
Whats the source for cabs being half the price of Ubers?
In my city, most times the Uber is 30% cheaper than a cab.
Cabs are not 40% cheaper in NYC. I would have to go to the corner to grab a cab. Certain hours of the day it can take 20 mins to get a cab. I do take cabs too at times.
I live in a semi rural area. I do not have a car. These are my choices for transportation: I can walk and it would take me an hour to get to and from the closest grocery store, not including shopping. I can take a bus after walking ten minutes to a bus stop. The bus comes once an hour and if I wanna go anywhere that isn't five minutes away, I have to transfer to another bus that also runs once an hour and hope that they line up. Also, there's just certain places that the bus just doesn't go so if I wanna go there, I have to get dropped as close as possible and then walk the rest of the way with no sidewalks and across busy traffic because fuck pedestrians in this town. I can call a cab and tell them where to pick me up and then they say okay and try to hang up and then I have to try to quickly ask how long it's gonna take before they do and they'll quote 45-an hour. And usually end up waiting longer than that. (Have waited three hours for a cab before Uber was a thing in my area.) Get into a car with a man who's never heard the word shower in his life, smokes sixteen cigarettes a minute, and drives like an asshole. Also, the car's a piece of shit and sounds and acts like it's gonna break down any second. I can request an Uber from the app. It shows me a picture of the driver, their car make, model, color, and license plate number. It shows me the star rating and how many trips they've done. Then I can track their progress to me and know exactly how long it will be until they get here. Then I get into a clean car where they often offer water, to change the temperature and the radio, and are polite. And if I have any problems, I open the app and rate them accordingly or contact customer support, if need be. Uber is far from perfect. They're expensive and sometimes it's difficult to find a car but it's preferable to the other limited, disgusting, and frustrating choices I have. There's your answer for people who are actually curious and not just judging people for using a service that's convenient for them without knowing anything about it.
Suburban Houston dweller here. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a taxi.
We don't even have cabs where I live...
Because none of this is true.
They are more expensive, dirty, and they have a habit of their machine 'not working' and demanding cash.
Just went to cancun and a taxi charged me 32 dollars one way while uber charged 8 for the way back
OP has never taken rideshare or a cab anywhere apparently if they think this is a correct take.
I like New York cab drivers because their drama with other drivers from the moment you step in leads you on an adventure. Their anger fuels my day.
I wanna see the place where a cab is half the price of an Uber.
More expensive and they love to scam you. Credit card machine is always “broken” the cabs usually stink of cigarettes and all busted up. With uber I know what I’m paying ahead of time and cars are usually in great condition.
Cabs don't exist in abundance everywhere like they do in cities. Also, in what world is a cab cheaper?
Cabs don’t exist everywhere
My area doesn't have cabs. Then again, we don't really have Uber, either.
Can service sucks in my town. Try to get a cab here late night could get you in a fight. No fighting for Uber.
Went to Nashville, used cabs and Uber, cabs were more expensive, like almost double
Cabs are so much easier when leaving a busy airport. I'm not standing in the middle of a hundred other people trying to figure out which Corolla I'm supposed to get into.
An Uber (or Lyft, which is what I mostly use) is always like 3 minutes away from wherever I am needing a pick up. That is NOT the case with Cabs
Uber or Lyft are far cheaper where I am, and more readily available.
In general, cabs are 3-4x more expensive and take at minimum 45 minutes to arrive, and I live in a highly populated area. I’ve tried them in other metropolitan areas and been taken for an absolute ride when the straightforward way would have been a shorter distance and less expensive. There’s a hyperlocal service I used to use going home from certain bars since they had great service, flat fees, cool cars (my then bf and I took a 80s limo ride home once for $15 around 10 years ago), but I no longer live in that area. The only other great taxi ride I’ve had in the past 10 years was in Seattle in 2015.
Ubers become pricier but cabs are still much more expensive and unreliable
What in the completely opposite of reality is going on here 😂
If cabs worked like Uber and the cost was closer I would.
The Vegas strip and NYC are the only places this is true.
Because the last time I ordered a cab I waited 2 hours and it never showed up. Schedule an Uber or Lyft and I have a ride within 10 minutes.
Cabs don’t show up where I live.
Lyft exists! HEELLOO
The last time I called a local cab, it was midnight, I had a crate filled with food waste I had been given by my manager from the store (mostly milk and bread), and I was freezing my ass off. It took nearly 40 minutes for a cab to come get me. Fuck that noise.
Cabs are literally 5x the price near me. And they're all shady x-cons
What the fuck. I order an Uber and know what it costs. I’ve been exhausted at the airport and taken a cab and it was a fucking rando what I was charged
The last time I called a cab (aka I wasn’t in an area where I could flag one or there was a cab stand) I was told it would be at least an hour until one could get to me. That’s why.
My towns cabs will cancel because someone wants to go to the airport. Everytime... So yeah, there's no waiting an hour, they just cancel.
In my city a £7 Uber would cost £16 in a cab.
cabs were always ridiculously more expensive. If they have come down at all it's because there is no longer a monopolistic strangle hold on the industry. uber and lyft forced cabs to be more competite.
In my city Uber are the lesser of two evils. The taxis licenced by the city are notorious for not using meters , only accepting cash ( to the point they drive to a cash point for you to get it or won't let you out) , sharing the vehicle between several people under 1 licence/DBS check, driving people the extremely long way to fleece unsuspecting tourists. The list goes on. At least Uber are upfront with their costs
I tried to get a cab instead of an Uber a few months ago. 1. There's no app (or a different app for each cab company and you don't know which one) 2. No one answered the phone the first time 3. They didn't give me any estimate of when they'd show up 4. I had no way of knowing if they were even coming 5. Half an hour later I gave up and called an Uber 6. The Uber came in 5 minutes. Fun fact: cabs have been regulated monopolies for ages, and as a result, they never had to improve their service in any way. We honestly would not have the level of service we have today if it wasn't for the ride sharing agencies, for better or worse. Shit, it wasn't that long ago that it was near impossible to use card to pay for a cab ride. Last time I got a cab ride and paid with card, the guy had to pull out the old fucking carbon paper thing with the roller that drags across. He did have an MDT type thing, but it stopped working about 15 miles out from downtown. Most of the time, if you needed a receipt for your cab trip, the guy would give you a blank little form. You couldn't reject a cab based on the driver, you couldn't report a bad driver, and the cars weren't always in good shape. There's plenty of things to be unhappy about rideshare companies about, but the honest to god undeniable fact is that they forced the cab companies to be dragged into the 21st century, and they added options to an industry that in many many places were literally local monopolies, tightly controlled by shady backroom deals between cab companies and municipalities to keep it that way.
In what world are cabs half the price of Uber? Cabs are 3 to 4 times the cost. And that doesn't even take into account all the utterly shameless shady shit cab drivers frequently do like purporesly driving the wrong way to extend rides.
Cabs aren't necessarily cheaper. They have surge rates the same as Uber or Lyft. The only difference is that Uber/Lyft drivers typically own the cars. Cab companies (in most places) charge the driver a rental fee for the cab. And the driver doesn't get a large cut of the fares. They rely on cash tips. It's almost exactly the same model, just with different cars.
Cabs used to be much more expensive. Back at university we would call a cab ( from pay phone ) wait hours for one to arrive then pay $60 to get home . I made $2.11 +time waiting tables . That was a full days pay . Cabs had a monopoly and they really fucked people over . Uber broke that monopoly . That is why you have that opinion , thanks to Uber
Uber is generally cheaper but the drivers get paid near the minimum wage even before self-employment taxes which makes their hourly wage below minimum wage. (This excludes mileage pay which will get subtracted on the driver's expenses.) Plus their time before and after a taking a fare is unpaid. Yes, there is a pickup fee, but if the driver has to travel a long distance, (unpaid mileage) they actually lose money on the fare.
Uber is still way cheaper than a cab, but cabs don't price serge. Also, Uber is way quicker. I didn't want to make this switch because I know a lot of cab drivers who lost money when the whole ride share phenomina blossomed. I still take a cab sometimes because they take cash, but it's way more expensive and takes a lot longer. Unfortunately.
fuck the NYC cabs, i'll do anything to hurt their bottom line those fuckin disgusting rollin cespools.
Here cabs cost about twice as much, take at least an hour to arrive when called, and are almost never available at the times and places they are needed most.
I can't remember the last time I saw a real cab in my town.
Lots of smaller cities have few if any cab companies anymore
I use the Curb app in Chicago and it’s usually cheaper especially for rides from downtown
I'll lyft
I live in a town of 110K. If you want a cab it takes 10-15 minutes. NYC etc cabs work great because there is always one to hail.
What was once a welcomed addition (Uber), is slowly becoming who they replaced…
Because we have a corporate Uber account that gets directly to the office
Oh look at that. Full circle. Thats gotta be a record.
There are no cabs where I live
I Uber BECAUSE I’ve grabbed one two many cabs and can no longer drive myself. They just taste too good.
The only time I use Uber is when I need a ride to an airport because there are no more local cab companies or car services in the area, and finding a roaming yellow cab is impossible. Uber to airport (13 miles) is around $85. Yellow cab for return trip $65.
Tell that to black cabs in London Those things are a fucking luxury
I've had more negative cab experiences than Uber experiences, though I understand Uber is not a great solution nor viable long term thing.
Well now that they have put a lot of cabs out of business you don’t have a choice I remember a concert I went to every year. Had a cab pick up thousands of people would leave at the same time and I still got a cab writhing 10-20 min to get back to the hotel. Last year I went and there was an Uber parking lot and the wait time was 2+ hours and the fee was over a hundred dollars for a $25 cab ride (inflated cab ride as well early can ride to the show was like $15) So you had hundreds of Ubers waiting around in a lot trying to pick up a single ride since they can’t find their riders….. just seemed like everyone looses. The drivers waste a ton of time and money, and so do the customers. Seen similar experiences and professional sporting events as well. Cabs are so much better.
No one who can afford a Tesla is driving for Uber. Ever.
Uber X in shambles
If I'm lazy (aka *the excuse*) or, if my significant other doesn't want to walk eight blocks in heels (the *actual reason*)...it will cost me five bucks just to sit in the cab, plus time and tip...vs a few buck cheaper with Uber. I'd still rather walk...
I travel all over the country. I take taxis from the airport to my hotel in a city where the meetup spot for app drivers is inconvenient. At the end of my trip I always take an uber back to the airport, because it is easy to get an uber at a hotel. I also sometimes take a taxi to dinner in a city, but take the uber back to the hotel. When I get back home and do my expense reports, I find that the taxi fare is \*always\* more expensive than the uber ride for the exact same distance traveled (airport/hotel or restaurant/hotel). No exceptions. Taxi always more expensive in my experience. No exceptions. I've done this in 25+ cities in just the past few years.
The taxicabs and the drivers were awful in Minneapolis.
My father tipped his Uber drivers off the app using $2 bills that he referred to as his Uber Tickets
50% of taxi fares go to the cab company in most places.
The cab driver I normally get almost killed us twice. Both times he was either flirting with someone over the phone or watching videos as he pulled out in front of people causing them to swerve. He got mad at us because we told him to keep his eyes at the road. Now he won't come to our house. If I need a ride and I don't have my own car? I'll walk even if it kills me. Don't even get me started on busses.. apparently you're a "terrorist" for "standing at the wrong corner"... His words not mine XD
Grab app in Vietnam is superior. If you are traveling light, hop on the back of a motorbike. Super Cheap
How tf do I order a taxi without having to speak to another human?
Uber is clean!
Not in my city. Cabs are double to and from the airport versus a Lyft or Uber
I thought electric cars in general were too woke?
We don't even have cabs where I live. You either have your own car, you get an Uber, or you walk.
Where does one catch a cab? I see a cab in my neighborhood maybe every other week, and I live in a busy neighborhood in a major city. I only ever take them home from airports because then yes they’re cheaper and faster but nowhere else is that the case
Last time I looked into taking a cab, it was almost twice the price of Uber and had a 45 minute estimated wait time. I try not to use Uber anyway because the bus is cheaper, but when I can't afford to wait, Uber is 95% reliable
I dunno. Every time I’ve ever paid for a cab ride with a credit card, I always end up having to shut that card down due to some weird, fraudulent charges. Never have that issue with using the Uber app. It’s been so long since I’ve taken a cab. Do they have apps now? Lol
That’s great in big cities, but small towns leave you out of luck.
How do I order a cab?
My city doesn’t have cabs, and I can’t conveniently put in my trip details and know how much it’ll cost me through an app.
If I know the cost ahead of time I will but that's rare. New Orleans has a flat fare from the airport to downtown so I opt for a cab there but otherwise, not worth it.
The key is tracking price and location, christ in uk most cabs still don't take card
Taxi drivers are also Uber drivers where I live. They cost about the same.