Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure uber is vile. Doxxing isn't ok, publishing booty calls isn't ok. But when an article criticizing uber says "That means predictable and affordable taxi fares could become a thing of the past.", I laugh.
And laugh. And laugh.
From my experience, use of the taxi industry was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
That is: it was hard if not impossible to get a taxi, i never knew if i was being ripped off, taxi drivers don't know where they are going, they lie about not accepting credit cards, and I avoided them.
Uber, despite its many faults, generally provides a low-cost service that shows up at my door within 3 minutes.
If anything, uber has created the first predictable and affordable non-driving option. Taxis fail on both axes. Metro isn't predictable. On the weekend, I've left with my feet, bikes, and cajoling friends with cars.
And now, uber drivers.
I use uber for small hops -- basically the last mile where metro doesn't go -- and that makes all the difference. Its relatively cheap, allows me to go anywhere without spending social capital asking a friend to pick me up, and is there when I am.
And taxis were never able to solve this problem.
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Uber solves the problems that anonymity of riders and drivers creates in traditional cabs.
ReplyDeleteTed. I think that is 90% of the problem, yes. But, it did so while
ReplyDeletemaintaining a lot of anonymity - I don't know what my drivers tab me, and
they don't know what I ranked them. Plus, taxis would often not respond to
hails, which is a different problem from anonyminity. Slighty, anyway.
That is, Ted Cabeen , i think that is 90% of it.
ReplyDelete