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Comment by lobochrome | Hacker News Reader

I love to be able to fly into SFO and just walk to the cab curb and be off.

No crazy Uber pickup location and trying to find “your” driver.

I also don’t have problems getting cabs at the hotels that I am staying at.

If I have to go down 101 and am in a remote spot I often have to use Uberlyft since nobody is willing/capable to get a cab.

Early on Uber cars were nice - now they are rundown just as much as cabs.

Pricing is horrible by Uberlyft. It’s just a disgusting feeling to have discriminative pricing algorithms.

Most cabbies I talk to own their Medaillon and are proud and knowledgeable about their job.

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I was in Milwaukee once, and needed to get to the airport. I don't use Uber or Lyft, but I asked the hotel what they recommended. They said Lyft. So I signed up, and put out a request for a ride.

Nobody responded. The app helpfully showed me all the Lyft drivers nearby that were ignoring me, which was really awesome.

At some point, it became clear that I was not going to get to the airport in time unless I left really soon. So I called Yellow Cab (or whatever the taxi service is called in Milwaukee). Five minutes later, the guy showed up and I was on my way.

I get that, as a brand new user, the drivers may have been cautious or wary of a gumper with no ratings, but WTF. I'm at a hotel going to the airport. I deleted the app from my phone, and would now rather take a pogo stick than Uber or Lyft.

Airports and pricy hotels are literally the only places in SF that cab service is dependable.

Prior to Uber, cab dispatch outside of airports and the hotel were nearly impossible. Getting somebody to come pick you up was a disaster of unreliability, particularly at times when transit had stopped, and cabs were the only option.

Uber/Lyft have huge problems, but the medallion system is even worse, IMHO. Ideally we'd have functioning transit and enough housing served by that transit that the housing becomes affordable. But without that, I'm glad that Uber/Lyft are there as an alternative to the horribleness of cabs.

Yup, pricey hotels to be clear. I stayed at a motel and the cabbies kept cancelling on me until I gave up and booked a Uber black. This was before UberX launched. The experience was so much better I took the car to the airport instead of the Bart station I had planned. Back in the day getting a cab in SF was next to impossible.

To add, I’ve also had to walk 3 miles in frigid SF fog and sleep in the office because I couldn’t find transportation back home.

Like their housing, this artificial scarcity ruined SF for me. On the flip side most Uber/Lyft drivers drive like maniacs now. So I guess there’s a line to be drawn somewhere in between the two craziness.

The first time I used Uber was about 6 or 7 years ago. I was living in the DC Suburbs and I had a plane to catch. The night before my flight I called and booked a cab for 6 am. At 6 am there was no cab so I called the dispatcher and asked when they'd be there, they said the cab was on its way and would be there in ten minutes. At 6:15 I called again and they admitted there had never been a cab on the way, there were none available, and they cancelled on me.

I downloaded Uber, signed up for an account, and had a ride by 6:25.

I had almost the exact experience, including the timing, with one alteration: exchange Uber with taxi.

And hence the root problem is exposed: people are generally not able or willing to pay enough to incentivize someone to reliably drive them at odd hours. The problem is people expecting something they cannot afford.

So if only some company had an algorithm to incentivize drivers based on supply and demand…

And then the company gets excoriated by media for price gouging.

I scheduled a pickup with Uber for my family to get to the airport for a holiday trip. It never showed, there was no feedback on the app and no way to know/resolve the issue. I only use Lyft now.

I used to travel to the Bay Area for work all the time, and the taxis were a nightmare EVERY TIME. Before I got in a cab at SJC I'd look the driver in the eyes and ask if his credit card reader "is working". He'd say "Yes, no problem! Hop in!"

Then we get to the hotel 15 minutes away, he wants $40 cash. Turns out his credit card reader is broken. I argue with him for a while, and he decides he can write my fucking card number down on a piece of paper. Asks me what the tip will be. It's zero, asshole.

Nowadays I have to walk farther to the rideshare pickup area, but the ride is cheap, the service is good, and I don't have to have an argument at the end of it. I tip in cash so that Uber/Lyft can't steal it.

I wish there were a version of this where the driver would get 90% of the fare, nobody gets discriminatory pricing, and nobody has to deal with gamified BS, but oh well. I will NEVER ride in another taxi or take any action to help taxi drivers. They had their chance and they blew it.

I have never been in this circumstance, but at that point paying at all seems like a bad idea. They can choose to kidnap you I guess...

haha, I should've done that

"Fuck you then, send me a bill" and throw my business card on the seat

> I will NEVER ride in another taxi or take any action to help taxi drivers. They had their chance and they blew it.

Do as you like but keep in mind there are some decent taxi companies. Up here there's a driver owned co-op cab that is reliable and reasonable. No nice app but if you schedule a trip to the airport they show up on time.

Yep the card trick seem to be universal. It happened to me so often here in Montréal that at the end I would just say "I only have 20$ cash does that get me there? Otherwise I have my credit card" so that if they were to have a "broken" machine they'd know how much I would be able to pay in cash from the get go. Sometimes the machine magically worked when the meter got way beyond whatever I had in cash. I get the hustle of not paying taxes or credit card fees but damn if it didn't make for a weird and pushy experience

I remember coming to San Francisco on business trips 11-12 years ago. Cabs were impossible to find - one of the selling points of our office building was that it had a cab stand, so it was a bit easier. We'd walk blocks to find hotels so we could get a cab. We'd call and they'd show up 30+ minutes later, if we were lucky. It was really really frustrating. It made experiencing the city without a car really challenging.

Uber was an incredible breath of fresh air. It just worked. It's more expensive now, but it still just works. And it's probably still cheaper than taxis were.

I wouldn't want to go back.

Best and worst taxi rides I've had were out of SFO about 15 years ago.

Best was in the evening. Went to the cab queue and the guy that pulled up for me had the windows down and was blasting techno from that university station that was around back then. He practically catapulted my gear in the back and off we went. Traffic was light enough he could weave through it doing about 30 over the limit, windows down and techno blaring the whole way. Got to my hotel quite fast.

The worst was mid day, and was a guy that was starting to nod off to sleep at red lights. I nearly got out of the cab but was already late to a big deal meeting, so just stuck it out despite how sketch it was.

> I love to be able to fly into SFO and just walk to the cab curb and be off.

The only reason Uber can't offer this service and has crazy pickup locations is because of regulations imposed on Uber

A lot of them are worse than cabs in London.

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