Eh - I've had some really terrible NYC yellow cab drivers - drivers that drove really unsafely, wouldn't listen to my instructions about what route to take, made wrong turns, etc. I haven't had this problem with drivers on Uber/Lyft/Juno. I suspect that the average skill level of NYC cab drivers has gone down, since the more experiences drivers that have saved up enough for a car lease have switched to the ride-hailing services, leaving yellow cabs to be driven mostly by relatively recent arrivals to the city.
I'll hail one if I'm in a hurry and I'm already on an avenue, but otherwise I'll go out of my way to avoid it. I agree that it's really frustrating waiting for an Uber in traffic-heavy places like Midtown during rush hour, though - the yellow cab probably wins for those cases if you can find one that's empty.
> drivers that drove really unsafely, wouldn't listen to my instructions about what route to take, made wrong turns, etc. I haven't had this problem with drivers on Uber/Lyft/Juno.
This sums up most of my urban Uber/Lyft experiences, be it Boston, Chicago, or NYC. Also my experiences when I'm driving and somebody's got an Uber sticker on the car.
Cabs don't exactly vet driving, but Uber/Lyft have a lot of folks out there that probably shouldn't be driving. And it's pretty wishful thinking to think that Uber/Lyft don't have recent arrivals driving--Uber at least will give a warm body a lease and take the payments out of what those drivers make on the platform. (A big part of what passes for "their business" is car loans!)
> bar people from driving if the rating as a driver is too low
With Uber's driver turnover being what it is, I wonder what has to happen for Uber to bar a driver.
My bet is that they'll semi-shadow ban instead. Keep them in the system for capacity, but silently send less work their way. Especially to "complainy" customers.
I'm not too sure about the specifics, but I have yet to be paired with a driver that has less than a 4.0 (although I don't watch to keenly). Most of them are 4.5+. I haven't rated anybody below a four
Put my car in storage two years ago, using a lot of ride share and cabs these days.
Rarely have a yellow cab driver get lost, despite no GPS. I can think of three in three years.
At least 2 of every 5 ride-share pickups, drivers can’t seem to figure out how to get to me.
At last 1 of 5 ride shares I file for refunds on drive costs because drivers blindly followed GPS directions despite bad signal on their phones, circling the destination, sometimes passing within a block of destination several times, yet never arriving.
In each of these cases, the ride share company has the data that shows the driver can’t find the pickup and can’t find the destination, yet doesn’t do anything proactive with that knowledge.
I have used ride-share services many times in a wide range of different cities, and I simply don't believe your claim of 20 - 40% problems. I suspect you're exaggerating the numbers to try to make a point.
I'll hail one if I'm in a hurry and I'm already on an avenue, but otherwise I'll go out of my way to avoid it. I agree that it's really frustrating waiting for an Uber in traffic-heavy places like Midtown during rush hour, though - the yellow cab probably wins for those cases if you can find one that's empty.