As a Londoner I dispute that claim. It's made a huge difference for a lot of people. Until the night tube's arrival last year getting home from late nights out was expensive, difficult, or impossible. It's quite useful when moving flat - something younger Londoners tend to do quite a lot. I had to go somewhere with some heavy equipment last week and if it weren't for Uber I would have spent a fortune on taxi's. When I was ill for several months which prevented me taking the tube I used Uber to get to/from work. It was expensive but affordable. Taxi's would have been too expensive and I would have been screwed.
Finally - I received half a dozen messages from friends within minutes of the news being announced. Looks like it will be missed.
For late night trips, Uber was very handy for that short window of time before the night tube. It still has some use when you can fill the car and get the per-person price down but unless it's very late you'll just sit in traffic.
In conclusion, life will go on.
This must be a different London from the one I was in ten years ago.
So yes, it's different.
If you live further out, getting home at night can be a multi-bus, multi-hour affair. And if you're not going in or out of zone 1, the odds of their being a convenient bus route is slim, and again, diminishes the further out you get.
Anecdotally, many of my friends and colleagues use Uber frequently, especially at night.
I used to take public transport but at the end of a night out, a cab is a lot nicer so long as it's within my price comfort point.
A black cab isn't really in that comfort zone for me.
Strongly disagree with the latter part.
My impression was that Uber, through price and convenience, created significant demand for Private Hire travel in London where it didn’t previously exist.
That may or may not actually be positive.
Consider those who, in the absence of Uber, would rather drink drive home after a night out than pay the extortionate fares for a black cab.
I don’t mind a bit of extra traffic if a few more of those types are kept off the roads.
Most people don't order taxis much daily true, but they do widely order Ubers because there's a massive price difference. And on nights out, taxis are often used because until recently we had no night tubes and now we only have a few lines and only on weekends.
I don't want to flame but this post is so wrong it makes me wonder if you're living in a different London.
The equivalent adult single fair is £5.10 or £3.10 offpeak.
> this post is so wrong it makes me wonder if you're living in a different London.
My thoughts exactly
Or journeys where Uber is marginally more expensive but people are willing to pay £1 for convenience.
I'm not sure what we're arguing about, the fact that it's 40k drivers and the everybody's phones just received several messages about it proves that there's demand.
It specifically says that people who miss the last train get cabs. So yeah, you've not really disputed anything they said. You like to get Uber? That's nice for you. I just use my local minicab company as they're almost as cheap and way more reliable. The price difference is only massive if you're silly enough to ask a black cab to take you 20 miles. Otherwise it's not really that much, nevermind "massive".
Also, if you're spending lots on public transport, just get a damn travel card. Transport's only expensive for tourists buying each on every journey. Londoners know how to keep their costs down, which makes me wonder if you're a tourist or business traveller who doesn't actually live here.
Basically I _am_ your average Londoner, by income etc, and Uber has made my life better. And it's not because I'm rich or stupid. The post I replied to was just too heavily biased against Uber to see the obvious utility for a lot of Londoners.