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Comment by mysterypie | Hacker News Reader

> my ride to the hospital to be 30 minutes late, to refuse to turn the music down, and to tell me the credit card reader is broken

As much as I'd like to stick it to taxis because of their decades of price gouging due to being granted a monopoly, I have not had many bad experiences riding a taxi. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say that less than 5% of my taxi rides were in any way unpleasant other than for the cost. What city or country are you in if I might ask? Are taxi experiences really that bad for most people?

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This really depends on where you live. Harassing and other similar situations are very common in Taxis where I live, while Uber drivers seem to be well-behaved.

None of my female friends dare get into a Taxi due to, well, harassment, (some have stories of groping, attempted rapes, etc.). Generally, they'd only take a taxi in groups, or walk. Uber seems to be working well in that regard (at least for now).

In my country, Uber service is far better than taxis by a mile... many taxi drivers are poorly-paid employees which don't care much, and they're basically immune to any kind of incentive or threat.

On the other hand, Uber drivers with a bad score are usually suspended or banned from the app, keeping out the bad apples, and they're usually the car owners themselves, thus having an incentive to drive better and take more rides.

I believe than something similar to Uber scores for taxis with similar effects (removing bad drivers from the service) would create a huge improvement.

Another unfortunate side effect is that there's some segmentation - poorer and older people still take taxis, while more affluent people take Ubers.

Taxis are good in NYC.

In Binghamton NY, they all tell you the credit card readers are broken at all times of day and insist on driving you to an ATM so they can get paid in cash. In Washington DC, if they think you're drunk, they overcharge you / don't start the meter and the dispatchers always tell you 15 minutes, but then the cabbies just grab other people and you end up needing to call the dispatcher repeatedly to actually get a cab and it usually takes closer to 45 minutes or an hour. And in Ithaca NY, they tell you the credit card reader doesn't work until you say you don't have any cash, and then it's suddenly working.

NYC cabs are waaaay better now that ridesharing is dominating. They used to almost universally keep their doors locked and quiz you on the destination, then drive away if it was Brooklyn or somewhere they did not feel like going. They are actually happy to get a fare now, so they do not treat the customer like crap anymore.

Taxis in cities with decent taxi systems, in a neighborhood with decent taxi coverage, hailed by waving your hand on the side of the road are fine, and getting better by way of competition. I have no qualms with taxis in, ie NYC or DC. Taxi dispatchers, though? Especially in smaller cities? I lost count of the number of times I had a cab no-show when I lived in Pittsburgh.

In SF, pre-Uber, taxi dispatchers would universally quote "20 minutes" for expected arrival, when the reality was usually 40 minutes to never (where "never" was equally likely as a finite number). I called to complain about this (and other things) so often that one of the cab companies blacklisted me and stopped answering my calls.

Right, but 5% is quite terrible when you're sitting around wondering if the car will ever show up, and if they quoted 20 mins, should you call again after 15 or 20 or 25 or 60?

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