Sure- in NYC, London, Prague, Budapest, Paris, and Amsterdam. And I haven’t actually “hailed” cabs at a lot more airports that have cab stands where you just go up and take the next one in line.
Around here (Dallas), you generally have to call ahead, sort of like an old-school Uber. You call, they pick you up at the designated time and place, and you pay the driver based on the meter when you’re done.
Same here. Many times, in Seattle, Chicago, and NYC. Probably other places too. But I’d be happy to never ride in a cab again. They were almost always dirty, smelly and poorly driven. Say what you want about Uber, but it’s a significantly better experience than 95% of my cab rides.
I don’t think I’ve ever called for a cab, but I do think that was a thing not so long ago.
I have rarely needed a cab, and the tew times I did, someone (usually someone from the hotel) would call them for me. In one case, the doorman did physically hail the cab for me.
I genuflected to one once, but I wouldn’t say I’ve ever hailed one.
I’ve gotten in cabs at airports where there’s a taxi stand, but I don’t really consider that “hailing” one. I’ve never actually stood by the street and waved one down before. In other cases someone from the hotel called one for me.
Many times! (but I live in NYC).
I had a colleague some years ago who was a Girl Scout troop leader. She thought that she should be teaching the girls things they would need to know as women, particularly in an urban environment. So she invented lessons (and badges, if I remember) for things like checking into a hotel, hosting clients in a restaurant, tipping, hiring workers for home repairs, and hailing a cab.
Yep, in both NYC and Paris.
My friends preferred to use Uber in Paris, but I would hail a taxi every now and then because I liked getting to use my terrible French.
The last time I was in NYC – nine months ago – I started off using Uber/Lyft, but during any kind of busy period it quickly became a lot easier and faster to just grab a cab (even taking into account the time it takes to pay at the end of the ride). I go there once or twice a year, and will likely do the same combo of “off peak” Uber/Lyft and taxis the next time.
Yeah, mostly when i lived in Chicago, but also in NYC. Maybe DC too.
Might it have been the time? I used to travel to Albany from NYC by Amtrak and when I arrived in Albany in the morning, there was a line of waiting cabs. When I returned to the station in late afternoon, there was not - presumably because not many people were arriving in Albany at 5 or 6 pm.
Anyway, I’ve hailed taxis plenty - I live in NYC. But my kids have probably never hailed a taxi due to circumstances - I think Uber/Lyft has been around ever since they might have used a taxi and hailing taxis for the most part only works in Manhattan. When I worked in Manhattan, I could walk out of my office and hail a cab - but not when I worked in Queens. In Queens, I would have had to call a car service.
There’s a hotel with a cab stand near where I work, and I may use that. I also grab cabs from the cab stand at airports. I dunno, maybe next time I’m in NYC I’ll have reason to hail a cab on the street. But outside of Manhattan, it’s almost always easier to call a ride share. I don’t do it because I expect the ride to be nicer, just because it’s easier.
In some parts of DC it’s faster than summoning a car by app or phone.
Or at least was, things being somewhat weird of late.
Living in Manhattan, of course.
We did in South Korea. We had to send him away, though, because he couldn’t understand where we wanted to go.
Being from Chicago, it always strikes me as weird when I go to a city like Cincy, where you are not allowed to hail a taxi, but are supposed to go to an authorized “taxi stand.” I grew up not knowing anything other than walk to the curb and hold your hand up.
When I was in Tunisia a month or so ago, I didn’t even have to hold up my hand. Just walk to an empty slot curbside and look back up against traffic with a searching expression, and a taxi materializes out of nowhere and swoops into the space for you. Magic.
Yes, a lot of them. The last time was earlier this year in Accra, Ghana. In Ghana, you point at the ground in front of you to hail a cab, as if to stay “Stop here”.
There used to be a system of hand gestures you could use to get a shared cab that plied a fixed route, that I used there back in the 20th century, but I’m not sure it exists anymore.
Just once, when I was in Chicago. We needed to get from the hotel to Wrigley in 20 mins, before the last Wrigley tour started. The cabbie said it would be hard but he would do it. He did it! We flew. It was fantastic!
Only thinking on the street, yes, in Chicago (airports don’t count for me, as they’re typically just taxi stands and no real “hailing” is involved, or at least in the way I think of as “hailing.”) Not as often as one might think, though. Maybe a two-three dozen times in my life. When I lived in Budapest? All the time. That was just the typical way to get from place to place quickly as it wasn’t nearly as expensive as it was in Chicago. In Chicago, I really needed a good reason to do so and not take public transport.
Now? I honestly can’t remember. Since Uber and Lyft I don’t take taxis. The only reason I would do so is if I needed a street hail and time was of the essence.
I had an experience similar to this once.
I’ve hailed cabs occasionally throughout my life, and that was fairly routine. This situation was different.
I and a friend had met in San Francisco to attend an opera performance. My friend dawdled getting ready for the evening, so I called a cab company and arranged for a ride from the hotel where we were staying (near the Haight in a little B&B).
The taxi was a few minutes late, but that was ok because so was my friend. We climbed in. I told him if he could get us to the War Memorial Opera House before they locked the doors, there was an extra $25 tip in it for him. (This was in the early 90s, when a $25 tip was decent.)
He said, “Buckle up and hold on!” We did. Wildest ride I ever took through the City, and I saw (very briefly) streets I never knew existed.
Made it, and he got his extra $25!
We were still late enough that we were required to stand at the back of the house for the performance until intermission, and then we had to roust two people from our seats because we hadn’t shown up to claim them on time. I was pretty annoyed with my friend for awhile.
I’ll never forget that cab ride, though.
I had a similar experience with a bicycle cab in Seattle. I couldn’t find a regular cab, and needed to catch a plane (before ride-sharing) and a bicycle cab guy say me and promised me he could do it.
He flew. I caught my flight. He got a good tip.