this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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A Boring Dystopia
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Of these, I'd like to point out that unironically Uber is the obvious choice for Best. Hear me out...
Outside of the really big cities, taxi service was trash. You had to find a number and a phone, the price was almost impossible to figure out in advance, and none that I am aware of were doing anything to keep up with the times or improve anything. The competition that it hurt deserved some pain.
People can now paw drunkenly at their phone and generally arrive home safe. Easy access to rides has almost certainly saved lives. I don't think you can say that about any of the others on the list.
But wait! I'm not saying that Uber is good. I'm just saying that, theoretically, you could start a service like Uber that isn't hot garbage, that has employees or at least better paid contractors that take home a more reasonable share of the money. Hell, a local government could create a ride hailing app that passes the entire amount back to the driver, and it would be a net benefit to society. Though at that point, maybe they should have just been looking into better public transportation and planning instead.
I say this every time this comes up, Taxis are trash, the only reason they're decent in big cities is because that's the only place you've got real competition.
Everywhere else has a single company, at best, and a lot of the times it's a one person LLC. Even my midsize city has a single person LLC taxi and Uber.
Uber the company is cancer, Uber the service (Or idea/concept whatever) was exactly what was needed. No more calling dispatch and being told "It's just around the corner" for 3 hours or them realizing I'm not local and taking me the LONG way around or even just taking fucking card lmao
Yes taxi companies were trash but Uber/ride shares forced them to evolve. Big city taxi companies now have all the same features as Uber. (route and price in advance, app for requesting a ride, info about your driver, safety features, card payment, and scheduling.) I'm now back to using taxi companies. The price is actually lower on busy days as they don't surge charge anymore. I've actually become a "regular" at one taxi company and they know me and I know the drivers. That's something that would never happen using Uber. The only time I use ride share is when I wasn't able to plan ahead. (like when my car broke down, and I needed a ride asap.)
But weren't they saying above that big city taxi companies were basically the only decent taxi companies already? Them getting better doesn't solve what Uber is providing an alternative for.
I honestly don't know what qualifies as big. I guess the ones with the easiest phone number to remember or the ones with yellow in their name. I live in Denver so what counts as big here might not in NYC.