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Comment by paulsutter | Hacker News Reader

Uber has made a big impact already.

http://dailysignal.com/2015/08/20/drunk-driving-is-down-in-c...

That's huge. I'm an Uber supporter (in the abstract sense, not the shady business practices sense) and love using it or service like it. But all the "cabs in my city suck!" hand waving I do is nothing compared to this.

It does make me wonder though, why? Because UberX is cheaper, so more people opt in that wouldn't even pay for a cab?

For me:

A) Storing cash: I hate having to carry cash around just to pay for a ride home.

B) I'm drunk. I don't want to have to tell a driver how to get there. I can just tap the home button, it gives him the GPS coordinates, and then I fall into the back of his cab.

C) Quality: Uber cars are clean and feel safe. I've never felt like I'm sitting in 10-year old vomit-stains in an uber.

> A) Storing cash: I hate having to carry cash around just to pay for a ride home.

I don't understand. Honest question: why is that necessary in the first place? I don't remember time when I needed to use cash for paying for a cab ride in any western country.

Despite regulation and stiff penalties, the "my credit card machine is broken" scam is still common. I know I get nervous getting into a cab without cash because of this.

I've never been able to pay with a card in any taxi in New Jersey. The state doesn't even require meters, you have to just take the driver's price or leave it. The more developed taxi industries (large cities) all have great rules about requiring access to CC machines, the smaller places no so much.

New Jersey is more of a black car style taxi it seems. You generally can't flag one down on the street (I managed to once, but only because it stopped for someone else), but if you call the dispatch company some of them will take a card over the phone. On the other hand, at least in North Jersey, between busses and trains, the public transit system here is really really good for the amount of area it covers. I've only taken cabs a handful of times and uber once, and only because I was in a rush.

The cost of taking transit generally makes any wait worth it for me. If I'm out in the city and trying to get home around 3-4am, the most I have to wait for a bus is 1 hour and it costs $4.25 for the 30 minute trip home. My other options are Uber, which has no wait, but costs $70, or finding a cabbie planning on going home to jersey and convincing them to make the trip for $30.

It's also faster. I have yet to wait more than 5 minutes for an Uber driver, whereas regular taxis take at least half an hour to show up after calling them, assuming I know a number to call.

What city do you live in? All I have to do is go outside and flag down the multitudes of cabs waiting to pick somebody up.

In many mid-sized cities, cabs are basically on-call services only. They don't drive around looking for fares.

I've had this problem in most of Philadelphia when I was living there and now most of DC. Their respective city centers are easy places to grab a cab, but they're also not living spaces and I tend to get around to most areas of the city.

I know in my city, Norwalk, CT, there are Ubers you can call, but no taxis driving around looking for a faire. Same with Stamford, CT, a city that's slightly larger and somewhat near Norwalk.

It's the same reason that white suburbanites prefer light rail to buses. Which is to say that it's a bunch of small things that amount to a huge difference in perception.

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