Comment by yincrash | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yincrash | Hacker News Reader

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In New York, where the story takes place: >A poorly designed hailing system in which I need to physically see the taxi in order to request its service.

I actually prefer taxis if I'm in Manhattan because it is about 10x faster to hail one of the many taxis rolling by than it is to wait and watch on your phone your Uber driver slowly make its way to you.

>A poorly designed (non existent?) tracking system, in which the taxi that I've requested may, in fact, be service another passenger, and have no intention of coming directly to me for the next 30 minutes. Or, never at all.

In New York, the cab's center lamp is lit up when vacant and available for hails.

>Almost no feedback, and certainly no "default opt-in" feedback mechanism on the driver, providing no incentives for the drivers to behave professionally or courteously for every ride, resulting in frequent rude or abrasive customer/rider interaction.

Tipping is the main incentive. Reporting of bad behavior goes through 311 (in New York). If you pay via credit card, the cab's medallion number is even on your receipt, so you don't have to remember it when you're in a huff leaving the cab.

I'm not saying the taxi cabs are the best system, but I want to quell misinformation.

It's only 10x faster to hail a cab if you're somewhere in the lower half of Manhattan AND it's not at a peak time. Outside of those conditions, I find Uber much faster.

Although yellow cabs in NYC are required to take you where you request, some will break this rule, or just do it begrudgingly. Same with taking a card, they will do it but make a big show and a stink about it. One even said I better give him a "big tip" for taking me to the airport.

> In New York, the cab's center lamp is lit up when vacant and available for hails.

Sounds great on paper, but these are abused. They'll leave them on accidentally or want to know where you're going before they let you in the cab. And that's saying nothing of bright, sunny days that render cab lights pointless.

> Reporting of bad behavior goes through 311 (in New York). If you pay via credit card, the cab's medallion number is even on your receipt, so you don't have to remember it when you're in a huff leaving the cab.

311 doesn't care about bad service. I get drivers ranting to themselves because they don't like my destination. It's also hard to snap a pic of a medallion when a cab refuses to pick up you up and drives off.

...that's to say, yes, there are answers, but there is room to innovate here and writing solutions into the legal code is a recipe for poor performance in several dimensions.

Try hailing a cab in Manhattan once it starts raining.

In fairness, try calling an Uber in San Francisco when it's raining.

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