[erikb]

With "driving demand" you don't mean "creating demand" but "directing demand to my business instead of the competitors", right? Because it sounds a little like you want to say "creating demand", but your demand to go from A to B is already created before you choose between a Taxi and Uber. You don't decide to go to B because Uber exists.

[morgante]

> You don't decide to go to B because Uber exists.

Actually, I absolutely do. I've gone on many trips that I simply wouldn't have gone on pre-Uber. On a regular basis I'll decide to go somewhere (ex. a party in Brooklyn) which I wouldn't have bothered with if it meant a slow and unreliable taxi (or an even slower subway ride).

[feedjoelpie]

Just curious: What makes you call Uber fast and taxis unreliable in NYC? I would agree with you in almost any other market, but I find getting a taxi in NYC using Curb just as fast and reliable, yet cheaper.

[tashoecraft]

Cabs in NYC are simply a terrible experience that needs to step up. Since they don't really care about you, I've had refusals to turn on AC, them blasting music or talking loudly on the phone, and even one guy pulling his emergency brake and telling me "my brakes aren't working you need to get out" because he didn't want to go from battery park to Williamsburg. I will go out of my way to not use a cab, I'll pay more, deal with more inconvenience because cabs are just a terrible experience that I don't want to deal with anymore.

[Zach_the_Lizard]

In Manhattan below 110 street or so, taxis are reliable if your destination is also in Manhattan below 110 street or so. Also from the airports they're generally reliable.

However, if you go from Manhattan to Queens you'll find they sometimes suddenly "forget" how to get there despite 90% of them living in Queens because they won't reliably get a return fare. Same in the rest of the boroughs.

Also they often have "broken" credit card readers that magically get repaired after fighting with them.

The cars are not always in the best condition. The other day I rode in a cab that had no suspension it seemed. Every bump in the road would send you flying. It was a nauseating experience, let me tell you.

I still take taxis from time to time, especially when there's no real price difference or when I don't want to wait. A late night flight I might take an Uber to the airport and a taxi back if the wait time is too long.

With Uber and Lyft I generally get clean cars with suspensions and don't have to worry about paying them (Already handled!), refusing service, etc.

Although you get bad service from time to time in all transportation providers, Uber and Lyft tend to be much more consistent.

[feedjoelpie]

I wonder if our experiences aren't wildly different because you seem to hail cabs the traditional way whereas I hail and pay via Curb.

[furioussloth]

Also being cyclist in NYC these yellow cab drivers are your worst enemies. I have almost got ran over more than once. You can listen to them moan about cyclists if you have been in enough yellow cabs. Having biked around in city for a while I personally go out of my way to avoid them. I only use them if I am in manhattan and have absolutely no patience or sobriety to call uber.

[praneshp]

I do feel like this applies to Uber/Lyft drivers also (at least in SF and bay area). The bonus structure built on X rides per day makes some drivers quite rash.

[fstuff]

More than that, it seems a lot of SF Uber/Lyft come from far away to work in San Francisco and don't know their way around and have their eye's glued to their phone's GPS. I ride a bike in SF and I've nearly been hit by a Uber/Lyft driver at least 10 times this year(once the same driver cut me off 3 times on 2nd street). I keep a eye peeled for those Uber/Lyft logos when I see them pulled over, when pull out into traffic they almost never look for bikers and usually screwing with their phones.

[praneshp]

Yes. I rode in the car of a person that lives in Fresno, but drives 5 days in SF. He and a bunch of others sleep in their cars at night. He knows the city well enough now, but pointed out 10+ drivers in a 30min drive with cellphones in their hand.

The only time I felt unsafe inside the car was when my driver drove with his elbows, with the Uber app in one hand and his wife on a different phone in the other hand. He just honked and cut across 3 lanes of traffic on El Camino on Mountain View. He told me later that he used to drive a taxi for years. I chalked it down as a cool story to tell people.later.

[cmurf]

If there were fairness, police would have had a field day (except it'd have taken months) ticketing yellow cabs if they applied the same strict rigor of law as they did ~5 years ago with cyclists. And that's accounting for some really absurd laws NYC enforced just on cyclists (if there's a bike lane, and you're a bike, you must be in the bike lane).

[RHSeeger]

Even if there's a car parked in the bike lane; you can get a ticket for going around it.

[morgante]

Taxis are fine in Manhattan, but good luck getting one to reliably pick you up in a reasonable timeframe at 3am in Brooklyn.

[rhizome]

I've gone on many trips that I simply wouldn't have gone on pre-Uber.

OP was talking about a destination you would go to in an Uber, but not a taxi.

[chrisseaton]

That's what they said...

> wouldn't have gone on pre-Uber ... I wouldn't have bothered with if it meant a slow and unreliable taxi

They would go to that destination in an Uber, but wouldn't bother in a taxi.

[ssalazar]

In markets with unreliable, inconvenient, or overpriced taxi service your options before Uber were to drive yourself, have a friend drive you, use public transportation, rough it in a taxi that may or may not show up and do so 30 minutes late, or simply not go. Since low quality was previously a barrier to using any taxi service at all, it absolutely creates demand.

[mseebach]

It seems that what you're describing is "simply" meeting existing unfulfilled demand, not creating new demand. Creating new demand would be when you move to a part of town with poor public transport because you can now Uber.

[JumpCrisscross]

> your demand to go from A to B is already created before you choose between a Taxi and Uber

In the Bay Area and New York City, for me, this is untrue. Distances feel smaller when you can cross them with the press of a button. That, in turn, makes peripatetic schedules realistic.

Case in point: I took a Lyft Line from Berkeley to Mountain View yesterday. If that wasn't an option, I would have (a) taken the train or (b) not gone that far.

[erikb]

Many comments say it as yours. After reading them I have to agree. I spend most of my time in areas with highly developed public transport. I assumed in the US at least taxis would offer a similar level of flexibility, but apparently not.

[cwilkes]

In Seattle the taxis usually gather at designated pickup spots, in fact I think there's a law about them only being able to pick up from there or if they are called vs hailing from the street.

In the past I've helped tourists by directing them to these locations which aren't noted anywhere. So it can be really confusing plus inconvenient.

That's one of the reasons I like Uber and the like: I don't have to know what to do.

[dagw]

your demand to go from A to B is already created before you choose between a Taxi and Uber.

If getting from A to B is time consuming and expensive then I might not bother unless it's really important. By lowering the costs of getting from A to B I might do it more often than I would otherwise.

[SomeStupidPoint]

Conceivably, I could decide to make three trips (to B, C, and D) instead of just two trips (to B and C) because Uber is cheaper/nicer/better/etc than other forms of travel.

My demand for travel is somewhat elastic, not completely set before I know the cost of travel.

[ghaff]

Demand is absolutely elastic (to a certain point) on a number of dimensions: price, time, comfort, hassle. There's an upper limit. The trip from A to B usually has some negative utility relative to being at B but the closer to zero you can make it, the more likely you are to make the trip.

Personally, I just don't have many situations where I would make a trip but my available alternatives are just a bit too costly/inconvenient--while Uber wouldn't be. But I understand they exist.