If it weren't for Uber, I would miss most of my appointments or be seriously late for them. Uber drivers have been courteous and reliably punctual. Cabbies all too often take a very long route for higher fares. I rely on Uber.
As a frequent tourist I love Uber. Why? They actually show up when you want one. And you can almost get one. I have been told by yellow cabs in many shades of words I do not go there one to many times.
3
I am very surprised that all of you are don't know about your Uber's fare. The fair is partly paid for by banks who invested in Uber in order to destroy a taxi industry in New York and other cities. When yellow taxi industry is destroyed Uber will have monopoly and increase your fair. There will be other taxi service for you to choose so you will pay higher fare. Also, the drivers at Uber are working in gig economy which means without benefits. They will also be easily replaced by driverless cars when Uber starts them driving. You should also aware that you are hold accountable for destroying yellow taxi industry when you take Uber and helping banks to get richer. Think twice when you take Uber, because you destroy yellow taxi industry and help Uber whose fares for rides are subsidized. Banks would like to get their money back from its investing in Uber and in the future you will pay twice the fare you paid now.
1
the taxi industry has been ripping people off for decades. Perhaps if they lowered their fares, they would be competitive. The taxi industry has been too comfortable for too long, and there is nothing wrong with competition.
3
Cab drivers are almost all you workers with no benefits.
I've never seen a green taxi in my neighborhood picking anyone up off the street. I assume they drop off and rush right back to Williamsburg as if that's the only spot in Brooklyn people would want to get into a cab. (and even then, most cabs I see are still yellow)
These drivers ruin themselves by not being available really. The lack of progress in the NYC Taxi industry is astounding. I never call an Uber or Lyft in Manhattan. I have to do it just to get somewhere in Brooklyn.
1
The Yellow Cabs abandoned the outer boroughs a long time ago, and aside from the Queens airports are virtually extinct. The "Green" cabs were a Manhattan idea to gift the boroughs with a service we didn't need, we all had the phone numbers of the local livery services. When Uber and Lyft came along they won by virtue of convenience, and more drivers (if all the few drivers in your preferred service were busy, you had to call somebody else). Green car drivers are also using Uber, and the traditional taxis are dinosaurs tottering toward extinction, good riddance.
In Manhattan when I need a cab I will continue to hail a yellow which tend to be readily available, instead of fooling around with an app on my smartphone.
2
Which says more about you than either available transportation, or apps/phones. Smart phone, not so smart owner.
2
why are you criticizing his character for preferring the yellow cabs, he explained his reasoning clearly( yellow cabs are readily available when he needs one), so maybe it speaks to your level of intelligence of not catching it?
1
Yeah, sure, New York has not become homogenized enough, what with Duane Reades, banks and anonymous looking chain stores block after block after block.
Let's erase the iconic yellow cabs, as well. Replace them with black hearse-like cars, block after block after block.
The landscape is becoming duller and more depressing with each passing year.
4
I don't know why the article emphasized black cars. I drive part-time in Chicago, so when I was in Manhattan on business in June I used Ubers several times. They were always regular vehicles (I don't know abt NYC, but in Chicago Black Cars actually have to be black).
The cab companies have nobody but themselves to blame for this.
Is this article doing it's journalistic job- is it looking very closely at how Uber is changing people's lives in NYC? There's a lot in here about rider convenience- an angle that in my view comes uncomfortably close to promo material. There is almost nothing in here about what this all looks like from the side of the workers, what they are getting paid for example. A fact missing in this article is that drivers are paid a lot less by Uber than by yellow cab companies or by outerborough livery cabs. Uber's signing bonus lures are offset by multiple fees that add up to between 20 and 30% or profits taken by the company. This makes it very difficult to earn a living driving Uber but their domination of the market forces a bad situation onto drivers. I know this because I've taken livery cabs in Brooklyn for many years and engage the drivers in conversation each time. Many work part time for Uber and Lyft and all consider them--especially Uber--as anti-worker companies who continue to gain ground at their expense. And by the way, the livery cab companies where I live in Prospect Heights are always reliable, have excellent apps, and cost the same or less than Uber while paying the drivers more. I wonder where all those profits are going?
5
Nowadays, businesses have to keep up with the latest technological developments to retain customers.
I used to live in Glendale, Queens. It took me an hour to get to my job in Midtown. The M train was slow, and if the L train was down, there were long shuttle bus rides. Friends who lived elsewhere rarely visited me (due to the subway commute). In 2013, there was nary a taxi to be found there. And if I wanted a taxi home from Manhattan? Forget about it. I can’t tell you how many fights I had with taxi drivers, many outright refusing to take me there, and others cursing me under their breath (which did NOT make for a pleasant 25 minute ride home!)
Now there are multiple ride-hailing apps, and the TLC even offers a few. To me it’s all the same…I just want someone to get me from Point A to B and for the same general price. First I tried Uber but I had problems with their app. So then I tried Lyft, and the app worked much better. Then one day, sitting in the back of a Green Taxi, I saw something about a TLC app. I thought ‘gee, I should really try and patronize the now-old-school taxi drivers, seeing as they are losing business.’ I tried to download the TLC’s app. It didn’t work. And of course, there was no one for me to call for assistance. So I’ve stuck with Lyft
1
New York City taxicab medallions were once touted as being "better than gold", and for a time they were. Medallions have dropped $1 million in value.
2
Uber may have it's bad aspects but the TLC invited this in. By artificially limiting taxi medallions they forced people to an alternative. Disband the TLC; make a medallion a few hundred dollars to fund real background checks and updated ones.
5
Why is it Yellow cabs don't use an internet app to respond to customers like their competitors? Old fashioned?
4
Out here in Greenwich, the taxis at the train station are expensive, rude and unreliable. Uber gives us access to people that actually want to pick you up and take you to your destination whilst accepting credit cards.
2
I just recently started riding with Uber and it's no surprise that the taxi industry is struggling. My Uber rides are generally much less expensive and much more convenient - the last few times I tried to hail taxis in NYC resulted in substantial waits. And living in the suburbs, where taxis are unreliable, expensive, often force you into sharing and generally have unprofessional drivers in uncomfortable, dirty, smoked-in cars, Uber is a no-brainer. So while Uber may have its issues, I can't believe it took me as long as it did to "discover" it since its baseline level of service is so far superior to what taxis have been providing.
5
I am happy to take yellow taxis, but understand that the system of medallions was costly to consumers, not just in terms of fares, but availability of service, which is really what the outer boro issue is about.
I don't blame the cab drivers at all. The way yellow cabs work is capital buys the medallion and car. They charge drivers a fixed fee to own a shift. If the driver catches enough fares, he takes home money. If it's a slow shift, he loses money. Either way, the medallion owner gets his guaranteed amount. When fares go up, the shift cost goes up, the increase doesn't really go to the driver. There are around 14,000 yellow medallions in NYC. Because cabs never seemed to pick up in outer boros, the City allowed for 6000 "boro taxis", which are green. So that's around 20,000 "taxis". Uber/Lyft etc have over 50,000 cars in NYC (many of them used to be base-dispatched radio cars but who now use Uber et al).
I live in Brooklyn and use the subway. I've never once seen a yellow cab available for hail. I see green taxis pretty rarely. Before Uber et al, we called radio car services when needed.
Does this add to traffic congestion? Absolutely. But mass transit in NYC already struggles to absorb riders. This is really about the cost of real estate and the need for people to live further away from work centers and commute. No Uber/Lyft, much harder to live in Queens and work in Manhattan.
3
It's offensive and hypocritical that a passenger in an Uber criticized the driver, saying , "How can you drive for Uber."
9
Uber should be regulated, but by smart regulations that serve the interests of consumers.
Like drivers should have more than adequate insurance. But what's the point regulations requiring training, fingerprinting, background checks, vehicle inspections? Those are just stupid hoops that drive up costs and create barriers to entry without a commensurate benefit.
2
They are. NYC Uber drivers have to have a livery driver's license and regular commercial liability insurance. In most places this is not the case, but in NYC the cost to drive for Uber is quite high.
In CA, Uber is taking the place of dial-a-ride in my town. Elderly people no longer have to make appointments several days in advance, put up with late drivers, or struggle to get into vans. My next door neighbor has one Uber driver to take her to the doctor, and a second who will take her to the store, and carry the groceries for her to her door. Taxi companies did this to themselves, buying each other out, only having dirty cabs with no a/c, and driver who refuse to speak English, rip you off, and drop you in the middle of the street.
19
Exactly. Where I live in Mt. Vernon, NY there is one dominant taxicab service provider. I have waited 30-45 minutes for a pickup or not been picked up at all, and that is when you can get them on the telephone. I only use Uber now. They come right away and cost less or just slightly more for fast service, clean cars and friendly drivers. One of my Uber drivers picked me up in a beautiful Mercedes, opened the door for me when he picked me up and got out of his car and opened the door when he dropped me off. That's service.
5
Not sure who the Times is polling. All the Brooklynites near me in Greenpoint use Via, a shared ride service which gets you back and forth to Brooklyn at a fraction of what Uber charges. Those of us a bit more upscale have long since switched to Juno (formerly Gett) a far more ethical ride which does not gouge us with "surge pricing" and only takes around 10% from drivers, vs Ubers 32% take.
4
When is Via coming to Inwood?? No love for upper Manhattan. :....(
Boo hoo for the yellow cabs. For decades the cab drivers in NY had it all their way. Rudeness, price-gouging, pretending not to understand English, taking you on a circuitous route to pad the meter, refusing to accept credit cards so they could pocket the cash, etc, etc. I say good riddance.
24
Me too.
1
I won't have anything to do with Uber. It's either a taxi or gypsie for me.
5
Why not? Are you a cab driver?
5
“Uber is everywhere,” Ms. Forrest said. “When I think of cabs, I think of Uber because that’s the main thing to take now.”
See Uber is a cab company. Why doesn't it have to meet the same standards as any other livery service?!
11
Because when de Blasio tried to do that or (even better) ban Uber outright, other City—and State—officials well-paid by Uber did everything they could to defy it and sabotage him.
He had no choice but to cave, which of course left him looking like it was his fault and he wanted it—and the homeless, and the potholes, and the crime, and the hipsters...OK the hipsters were partly his, what with the rich-developer-coddling.
Racist cabbies are, of course, a big legal problem, as is the separate-but-"equal" green cab fleet. They should all be yellow and serve all of New York, without exception. Apps are dangerous and unjust (not least because of the iPhone itself), though if so many are so eager to give up on their privacy by sending hail and route requests by app then hey more gold for the coffers.
But all that is no excuse for anyone, certainly not the City Council, to give up on enforcing the laws on cabbies and instead grovel to avowed law-defier, worker-stiffer, and tax-evader Kalanick. (Uber is ostensibly headed by Dara K now, but as long as Kalanick's on the board at all Dara is the Medvedev to his power-hungry puppeteer Putin.) Same for siccing our public schools to Eva M's corporate-welfare "charter" dogs—fund them in the first place instead!
2
Because those livery standards are antiquated and largely unnecessary.
2
magicisnotreal asks "Why doesn't it have to meet the same standards as any other livery service?!"
I think a better question for you to ask is why don't traditional livery services have to meet the same standards as ride share companies?
It's the poor customer service standards of the traditional taxi services that customers have rejected. Riders voted with their wallets, and the business model with better customer service is winning.
2
I love yellow cabs. But they have gotten crazy expensive in order to pay for a million dollar medallion, hence individually owned cabs are rare. They also don't like going out to the boroughs. So I use uber. T&LC should make it easier for individuals to buy a medallion.
3
Medallions, like real estate, are sold or auctioned at market value. Those who bought one "post Uber", unfortunately, have seen their value decline much like buying real estate in a boom market. I too, have never had a problem with a yellow cab, but, I may have more "grit" than some.
3
At peak, a medallion traded around $1.3mm. Since then, a medallion has traded as low as $240k. That is an indication of the market valuing income stream going forward.
The problem was that medallions never should have gotten that expensive. They only did because of the arbitrary limit on number of medallions in NYC (like 13,500). That guaranteed that demand for cabs would be high enough that medallion owners could rent out a high price for shifts. If the city had increased the number of medallions, more cabs available to serve, and lower price of medallions. But medallion owners fought that too.
The creation of the 'boro taxi' (green taxi) was a compromise. These are not medallioned taxis, they are technically livery cars available for street hail (radio cars are not). But since this would have impinged upon medallion owners, the City mandated they could only pick up passengers in outer boros. Good compromise; more cabs available for outer boro passengers, which the City wanted, and allowed medallion owners to keep the more lucrative Manhattan market. (As a comparison, instead of $1.3mm, the permit for boro taxis is $1,500 for 3 years).
What medallion owners missed is that they still competed with radio cars. They figured calling a car service and dispatching a car could never beat street hail. Then Uber put it on a smartphone and made it super easy. Now the radio car companies are dying off, the drivers are going to Uber/Lyft.
2
Why should a government license be sold at market rate? why are they not returned to the government when no longer used and re-issued? Would you use a physician who had purchased his license from a retired physician?
1
Don't forget about Lyft! I've ridden both for years and have gravitated to Lyft because of their happy drivers and superior customer service
17
Uber, surging. And prey tell, did you think to ask them where all these humans who currently drive will go for employment in a few years once Uber throws them out and replaces them with autonomous vehicles?
8
They will do like the horse grooms and carriage repair people did when we shifted from horses to cars. It’s progress!
8
Won't they go back to being gypsy cabs?
NIMBY's in CA already going to court, slowing it down. In reality will not happen for 15-20 years everywhere.
Taxis had eons to create an app like Uber. They didn't. Their loss.
32
Completely agree. Though there would have been pushback from the drivers about having to use apps, GPS, etc - location specific data. More investment, etc. Just like they decried the credit card machines - only to rescind those views when sales went up due to the ease of payment for passengers.
Sometimes the old orders don't want to evolve, but then complain when others innovate them out of business.
23
Except they did. It's called Curb.
2
Odd that this writer doesn't seem aware that hailing a taxi in the outer boroughs has always been impossible due to their relative scarcity. In the outer boroughs it used to be all about "car services."
These app-based services (like Uber or the more driver-friendly Juno) do exactly what a car service does, but better - you "call" it, it comes and gets you. It shows you where your driver is and thus when you can expect them to arrive, and it handles payment. (Juno even lets you tip, which Uber resisted for years.)
Now that I live in Manhattan I usually find it more convenient to just grab a taxi. But in the outer boroughs, app-based pickups are where its at.
38
I would agree. I've long thought that uber and other ride hailing services are just unnecessary in a place like Manhattan, central London, or other highly urban locations. On the other hand in slightly less dense areas, suburbia, this is way better than alternative car services.
10
Taxi companies have nobody to blame but themselves. They had a monopoly for too long and behaved accordingly: uncomfortable vehicles, difficult to get one when you needed it, fares determined by distance and time which incentivized drivers to take the least efficient route, etc. And they ignored technology.
They will join buggy whip manufacturers unless they figure out how to innovate and improve their service to compete, which is how capitalism is supposed to work.
56
See 10/12/17 City Lab article “The Ride-Hailing Effect: More Cars, More Trips, More Miles” which discusses that Uber/ride-hailing adds to congestion and pollution:
“…. a new working paper by U.C. Davis transportation researchers—which reflects perhaps the most comprehensive survey of ride-hailing use in U.S. cities—makes some clear indications: The likes of Uber and Lyft are adding car trips to city and suburban streets, and in many cases, cannibalizing transit.”
Uber needs available cars which can get to customers quickly - which means lots of cars which add to congestion. Furtther the more that people become accustomed to being driven around, the more Uber trips they will take (a lot easier than driving yourself.) And people with money will skip mass transit in favor of being “driven.”
Also Uber’s persistent use of big SUVs is not environmentally friendly.
Not to mention Uber's unethical treatment of drivers and Uber's complete disregard for civic regulation and laws.
19
If Uber is cleaning mass transit's clock, maybe it's time to reassess mass transit, at least the last mile.
19
In NYC congestion is getting progressively worse because lanes of traffic are being removed in every borough. Some of them given for bicycles, some to buses and some are removed for no reason whatsoever. According to surveys, there actually less cars on the roads than 5 or 10 years ago, yet traffic is paralyzing this whole city. Just check the infamous Queens boulevard. There may be 1 or 2 bicycles on the 2 miles stretch of this road occupying one of the lanes while thousands of cars are stuck and unable to move anywhere. No very efficient! Having cars on the road that spend 20 or 30%more time idling is not so good for the environment either.
Please stop demonizing drivers and removing lanes of traffic. In the long term it is bad for everybody.
7
If you are handicapped/elderly/female mass transit is a very poor means to get around-uber is better.
2
Uber, an updated version of the gypsy cabs that served me well during the 1980's in Queens.
14
Not a big fan of Uber yet, in light of their dicey employment practices. But given the indignities I've endured over the years by yellow cabs who decided I was not worth driving to Brooklyn, I say: too bad for the taxis. In a sense, they've brought this on themselves.
53
100% agree, I’ve moved more towards Lyft lately due to your first point. Second, why would I volunteer myself to try and convince a yellow cab driver to take me to Brooklyn, then argue over which bridge is quicker, then give him turn by turn directions while he is on the phone and acts like I’m interrupting. With Uber/Lyft or whatever app l, they choose to pick me up and I get in and go.
9