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Data Research Reveals When Taking a Yellow Cab Is Cheaper Than an Uber
An anonymous reader writes A team of data scientists have come up with a system to identify times when regular yellow taxis are cheaper alternatives to an Uber [in New York]. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Nanmur in Belgium have compared a broad dataset of both yellow taxi and Uber fares in New York and have discovered that for a trip costing less than $35 Uber is often the most expensive option. The data scientists were able to reach this conclusion by comparing trip and fare data for each yellow taxi ride taken in 2013 and entering it into Uber's fare query system. Prices were taken from Uber's lowest-cost service Uber X and the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission.
They do it because of the smell.
Or a surge pricing multiplier kicks in while you are waiting your 20 minutes for the car to pitch up, only to suddenly get a cancellation notification... I guess the driver found a better fare.
I don't take Uber (or more often: Lyft) because it's cheaper. I use these services because 1) the car actually shows up, 2) when it's supposed to, and 3) I know ahead of time how much it will cost. Even if it's a couple of bucks more, that's well worth the vastly better customer service.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I was new to the Seattle area and a college student, asked to be taken on a mainstream road in Bellevue (148th Street iirc), the cabby claimed not to be able to find it. Mind you this was 17 years ago and was 10pm, I was desperate to meet my roomate while he was still up and get into my new apartment. What should have been a $35 taxi ride cost $105. Gas was $1.16 in the area and I thought it was high compared to my area.
I already knew he ripped me off bigtime and couldn't happen with smartphones today nearly as much, but there you have it. A lot of subsequent rides later, I see taxis trying to rip off a lot in certain areas. Taking longer routes or their meters just not corresponding with reality somehow, maybe an advertised rate and then setting a higher one (my experience not always in America, mind you).
Never used Uber, but if it's one destination, one final price, I'll take it thank you very much.
What a complete and total pile of crap.
The average age of a NYC taxi is 3.3 years. They MUST be replaced after 6 years.
You can not call a yellow cab in NYC. Since you can't call one, your BS about one not showing up is false. You CAN call for a town car, which WILL show up, and has the same age limits as a regular cab, and WILL be a Lincoln Town Car or equivalent.
I don't know where you get your 'facts' from about Uber, but you sure as hell don't normally get a higher-end car or SUV. You usually get a Prius or Camry or something of that ilk.
The fare data does include tips. See bullet point #2 on the first page.
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.0302...
The problem with that thinking is that nothing happens in a vacuum. You make it sound like Uber and the people who chose it have no impact on everyone else. When Uber comes in and gets to cherry-pick only profitable rides, and otherwise lower their price (by not doing all the things that regular cabs must do) that means the traditional cabs are not getting that business. They can't survive with their regulated rates and must-carry rules, time required on the road, etc. if they only get the unprofitable trips. That impacts not only the cab companies, but everyone who uses them, which is a whole lot more people than use Uber (236 million people per year in NYC).
If someone owns a factory they don't get to say 'yeah, everybody else has to obey EPA rules, etc, but those rules are really just to protect the existing factories, and my customers live somewhere else and don't care anyway, so we declare ourselves exempt from the law and will just dump waste into the rivers and air'. This is the same thing.