I don’t get the hate for Uber / Lyft. As others have mentioned, in my own experience Uber provides more reliable service and better and more transparent pricing. If taxi companies want to compete they need to up there game instead of complaining about Uber or lobbying local politicians to place more restrictions on Uber. Here in Corpus Christi the proverbial 1 hour wait for a taxi happened to me even though it was 2 PM on an average weekday. Uber, on the other hand, was able to pick me up from a busy festival on a Saturday night within 5 minutes, I knew who was going to pick me up, how far away they were, what the vehicle looks like, etc. I’m not sure why the taxi companies don’t provide these other services, but they should definitely start working on it if they hope to remain competitive.
…do you want me to expand on any of those, or are you starting to understand some of the “hate” now? And the “hate” is really not directed towards Lyft so I wish people would stop conflating the two.
My main issue with ridesharing services is that I find their drivers to be fucking awful, as a group. Far worse than the taxi drivers here in DC. Left turns where they aren’t allowed, U turns at red lights and other illegal places, if someone is double parked and it isn’t a truck it is a stone cold lock it is a ridesharing driver, and so on and so on.
If taxis are driving like maniacs, I’m reasonably confident that a report to the taxi authority here is DC will at least be received courteously, and maybe followed up on. Someone tell me how to report a ridesharing driver for being a fucking menace.
1 star review. Uber disables drivers who fall below 4.5 stars.
I am not a customer. I thought that was clear. I’m sharing the road with these jerks.
Huh, very much opposite the experience fir me. In Chicago, at least, cab drivers are among the most aggressive drivers I’ve seen, as a group, both from inside and outside the cab.
Me too, and I’d add NYC, Seattle, and Vegas to your list. I’ve also interacted with a lot of cab drivers because of some litigation I was involved it, and without exception they were treated terribly by the owners. They are also independent contractors, yet have very little control over their schedule.
I think In DC, a good number of cab drivers may have become Uber drivers, and also the DC taxi authority has become a LOT better at enforcement over the last several years. The taxi service here isn’t great, but it’s far better than the “I’m going to kick you in the balls and rip you off” level of service from bygone years.
Here is what Uber did for taxis in the UK and Ireland (and maybe in more places) - they go their shit together and launched Hailo, which was then replaced by MyTaxi. I can call ry a cab from the app, pay electronically, see when it is coming, and have an estimate of total cost.
Something I NEVER had from cabs in Chicago, New York, DC, etc. I have had to fight for air conditioning, fight to pay via a credit card, been bitched at for short hauls, and I have stood at the curb for over 30 minute waiting for a cab that was “almost there.” My white privilege meant that I could at least hail a cab, unlike my black colleague. The limitations due to medallions created an industry that did not care about their customers because there were not any other options. When my title and career advanced, I was thrilled that I could book limos instead of dealing with cab driver attitudes.
Do they play the independent contractor game? Of course, and many people in the gig economy WANT that. Is the model perfect - nope, they are still figuring it out.
But I will happily call an Uber, a Lyft, or other equivalent services all day long rather than deal with another smoke ridden cab. I also know that if I slam a driver on the app - sooner or later they won’t be driving as the negative reviews stack up. People that owned medallions did not have to worry about that.
I am completely indifferent to this law since I am old school and just use the regular taxis, which have always served me well anyway (although I have heard complaints from some others). However, as an observer it seems there are too many Uber/Lyft/whatever drivers here now. I have known several personally, and they all gave up doing it, because there are just too many around to make it worthwhile. Plus ugly incidents are on the rise such as the recent one here in Waikiki in which an Uber or Lyft driver dangerously cut in front of a regular taxi, and when the taxi driver honked, the other driver started waving a knife at him out the window, film of which was shown on the news.
Yeah. There is apparently no way for a non-customer to complain about an Uber driver.
As though the world is listening to my rants in this thread, this morning as I was driving to work, an Uber driver completely blew a stop sign while turning left, cutting in front of me (ie., I was heading east, no stop sign - he was driving south, blew through his stop sign totally, and turned to the east). I had to jam on the brakes and lay on the horn to narrowly avoid an accident – the closest call to a smash-up I’ve had in months. He then veers across two lanes of traffic to pull up at the corner to let his customer out.
As I passed him after he had pulled over, I hit the horn again, and yelled “ONE STAR!!!” but I forgot to roll down the window.
Fucker.
Like you said, he probably used to be a cab driver. 
I’ll keep an eye out for competing anecdotes. I know there was some nasty cabbie action I encountered last night and was reminded of this thread, but I can’t remember for the life of me what in the hell it was, as it wasn’t directly involving me.
I’m not saying that taxis are immune to terrible drivers. I’m saying that they, in theory, could have their hack suspended probably at a significantly lower threshold than a non-cabbie who only has their own personal driver license.
That’s probably true. To me, Uber/Lyft drivers, from my experience inside them, are more conservative drivers than cabbies by a long shot. It’s always been a pleasant, friendly experience for me, like having a friend drive me home. It really hasn’t been that way with taxis, but the locale does depend. The UK has absolutely fantastic taxis, for instance. My many years experience with cabs in Budapest was similarly pleasant, for the most part. Almost like an Uber/Lyft exprience. It hasn’t been as “warm” and pleasant here in Chicago.
Since Uber and Lyft drops drivers who get poor reviews, and some of their riders are not going to enjoy aggressive driving, and Uber and Lyft drivers are driving their own cars and carrying their own insurance and have a lot to loose from an accident, I’m thinking that the incentives for good driving probably wash out about the same.
I read this several times and I’m not quite sure what you’re saying… can you clarify?
I would agree that there are incentives for drivers to drive responsibly, but obviously those incentives are not sufficient given the obnoxious behavior I’ve seen (and very nearly touched as of this morning) here in DC.
ETA: And I should add that there are a whole lot of jerkwad drivers all across the country do not seem to care if they drive like maniacs in their own car while carrying their own insurance and also have a lot to lose from an accident.