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Comment by rorlin | Hacker News Reader

It's always funny how people come in from all over for SXSW and assume Austin will be some bustling metropolis with big-city amenities. Did you not notice "downtown" includes only a few square blocks?

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I don't think being able to catch a cab, at all, is a 'big-city amenity'.

Also keep in mind Austin is one of the biggest growing cities in the entire US.

etc. I could keep on arguing the point, but I nuked my previous account on here because of petty negativity like this, so I'd rather not.

Thankfully everybody I've met in person here has been incredibly friendly and hospitable which has left a big impression on me about Austin and the US in general. I will take that as my example, not this mean-spirited comment.

It is. In most smaller cities in the US, calling a cab means waiting 45 mins for it to show up. The SXSW crowd doesn't have the patience for that.

And you're right about Austin's growing pains: the taxi shortage is very real even on a normal weekend. But Texans are also some of the friendliest people you'll find; which is a big part of why people love Austin enough to cause those growing pains.

We called cabs and got no response at all, not even a 45 min wait - I mean sure this could be a thing that is just a major difference between the UK + US, and of course different because of the heavy loading of SxSW, but the point is I don't think it's naive of me to think that'd be possible :)

Yes the people here are really amazingly nice. That is my abiding memory of this experience!

The unofficial city bird is the (construction) Crane, define few?

Generally that means 2-3. Is there such a thing as hypobole?

Well, there's meiosis[0], but that's not exactly right...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis_(figure_of_speech)

I live in Austin. I'd say there are at least 36 city blocks, probably more.

Yes, who would think that the eleventh-largest city in the US would have taxis.

I get your sarcasm, but I live in St. Louis, which is a much bigger region than Austin [0], and the cab situation sounds pretty similar to what I've experienced here. There aren't many places where you can just hail a cab; you have to call. And on big cab days -- e.g. New Year's Eve, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, etc -- it can be quite difficult to get a cab at all. I called for a cab this past New Year's and the largest companies weren't even answering their phone.

Austin's downtown is growing, so I'd expect this to change, but my point is that you can't just hail a cab in most U.S. cities.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metropolitan_Statistica...

I'd agree that expecting to be able to hail a cab is probably not wise, but it sounds like you can't even reasonably call for one.

I'm guessing you have not been to Texas. In Texas you own a car (or more likely truck). If you do not, you are more likely a homeless person or a visitor. The visitors quickly rent a car. The population density of a city like Austin is a literal order of magnitude difference. Things aren't stacked on top of each other so people have to drive to them. Because people have to drive there large parking lots are needed. Large parking lots puts stuff even farther away from each other. Southwestern cities are built on the premise of personal transportation.

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