And see, that’s been Uber’s problem all along. The lesson they did not learn from the taxi industry.
(1) Failure to make friends with their local elected officials. (Hint - it’s not always the thought that counts)
(2) Failure to hire the right consultants to help smooth their path to success. Capisce?
Sure is, here is a great example.
Anyone who took out a loan, or loaned money, to buy a taxi medallion is someone who causes my sympathy meter to twitch not a micron.
Oh man, in remembering my own taxi nightmares I’d forgotten about this awful thing- how occasionally they would come 5 or 10 minutes early and barely be there for 5 seconds and take off before I could even get out the door.
My personal worst was catching a taxi to the Rochester, NY airport in '95- made reservation the night before, didn’t show, finally got one to come about 45 minutes later, then he made another stop to pick up another passenger, and while I was nervous about time it seemed like I would make it ok, and I thought great, at least I’ll save on splitting the fair. Except when she got in the driver said no fare splitting, we each have to pay full price. In hindsight I have no idea if that was legal, but at that point I just needed to get to the airport and I was essentially his prisoner if I didn’t want to miss my flight. Fucker.
This is BoingBoing after all. I see no reason to think the Republicans won’t be blamed.
That’s very atypical. Was it a NYC (yellow) cab? As far as I know NYC cab drivers are required to know how to get anywhere in Manhattan and to major destinations in the outer boroughs and neighboring counties.
They should be blamed for a lot of stuff.
So should the Democrats IMO.
The MARTA is really hit-or-miss IME. It’s relatively easy to get back and forth between a handful of places, but last mile is spotty and you may have to walk a ways, providing you even can.
Chicago has a good public transit system, for most places in the city. That works out for me, because I do not want to park in the city and I don’t really even want to drive to the city. However, there’s no decent public transit in the burbs past Cicero* or so.
DC is supposed to have a great public transit system, but I think it’s overrated. Too expensive, and not nearly as convenient as the locals say it is.
*and then you’d have to live in Cicero, which I do not recommend.
No, to my memory it was an independent cab service, not an official yellow cab, but it’s been four or five years. He was both incompetent and belligerent, definitely didn’t give me a good impression of cabs in NYC.
Ah that makes sense then.
The NYC TLC (Taxi and Limousine Commission) heavily regulates livery drivers. To get a taxi medallion you have to undergo a rigorous and cutthroat process. Only yellow (and to a limited extent green) cabs are allowed to respond to hails. Any other pick-up has to be prearranged. The driver that you hailed that picked you up broke the law.
I’ve had countless NY cab rides, and while not every experience was wonderful, the driver getting lost was not something I ever had to worry about – even when going to residential areas outside of Manhattan.
ETA: Re-typed on my computer to fix some clunkiness.
They do have one big disadvantage: you can’t have more than one beer. I guess I am just spoiled by Munich’s excellent public transportation network of subways, trams, buses and commuter rail. Car2Go plugs the hole, and other car sharing services cover my Ikea and other cargo needs.
Do you seriously think that Uber drivers are more knowledgeable than cab drivers? You have one anecdotal (pre-GPS) data point. I have literally hundreds contradicting it. When I see someone stopped at a green light obliviously blocking traffic and poking at a screen, or suddenly veer across four lanes of traffic without signaling, I give 4:1 odds it’s a rideshare driver.
Oh yeah. Nearly every time some douche is double-parked, blocking a lane of traffic as they idle, sometimes with hazards blinking, usually not, it’s a guy poking at his dash-mounted iPhone with an Uber sticker in the window.
this is only true in Germany, not Bavaria. Beckstein said that two Maß beer are not incompatible with driving
That wasn’t the point I was making.
No, I don’t think that rideshare drivers are any better and I have also seen plenty of clueless driving from the and from taxi drivers.
Why so angry?
They are supposed to - but anyone who lives in NY has stories of when they don’t. There’s a lot of ID “sharing” among drivers with friends and relatives who may literally have arrived in the country a few days or weeks prior. It’s probably even more of a problem now when drivers have to work even longer hours to make up of the business lost to uber and lyft.
Some of it is also the fare maximization strategy that is so common among drivers taking people to and from the airport via “creative” routes in order to make more money. Anyone who has traveled has experienced that.
Sure. Not saying it’s not a problem just stating the law.
Livery drivers frequently try to take advantage of tourists but I also understand it’s a very cutthroat market and these folks are just trying to make an extra buck. I also understand that it’s very risky to do this for the drivers as well.
If I’m taking a standard Uber from the airport, I’ll tip if the driver helps with bags, does a decent job, etc; my last Uber got lost, almost got in a wreck (twice), and chewed betel nut the whole time, which was super gross. No tip. But if I’m doing an uberX and the entire ride is only costing me like $5, I’ll definitely tip the driver a few bucks to make their time somewhat worthwhile.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
