Le Chic Geek
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I was stuck in traffic today. Â The person behind me was looking at their phone and nearly ran into the back of my car. Â He slammed on the breaks and screeched to a halt pretty suddenly. (I could see him coming in my rear view mirror and was hoping he stopped).
A little later, the traffic picked up. Â The person behind me had to swerve to miss my car last second. Â I’m so lucky I didn’t get rear-ended and that their was a left shoulder on this highway.
I said some unpleasant things under my breath about the driver and then moved over to the slower lane. Â Mostly because I really like my bumper being attached to the car.
When the car behind me passed me, I noticed the Uber “U” in the window. Â And that the woman in the backseat was yelling at him.
The great thing about Uber is it keeps drivers like that off the road. Â When the passenger in the back reports him, I doubt Uber would continue with him.
I’ve had taxi drivers take crazy routes with me. Â And try to rip me off. Â And there’s not much you can do about that.
You can report them to a board and it becomes a he-said-she-said issue.
I only had one major issue with Uber.
I got an Uber X to go from one hotel to the other. Â I was traveling to a Radisson and put that into the Uber app. Â The Uber driver ended up using his own GPS.
I was familiar with the area and saw a Radisson coming. Â I pointed out that it was in front of us. Â The driver told me that was the wrong Radisson.
It was the only Radisson in the entire area. Â And I told him that.
He wouldn’t stop at it. Â As we passed it, I started telling him that it is where I want to go either way. Â He kept driving on.
We drove for ~ten more minutes with me arguing that I just wanted him to turn around and drop me back off there. Â Eventually he gave in and turned around.
I contacted Uber and they pulled up my route and saw the destination I put in vs. the route the driver took. Â They didn’t even question me because the proof was all there.
Whereas when I’m in an argument with a taxi cab driver over the route he took me that cost $15 extra, I start feeling nervous because I’m usually by myself.
So not only do I feel like I have more protection with Uber, I also feel the need to use that protection less often than I would with taxis.
Uber doesn’t care about safety at all. Opposite, by blocking minimum standards for drivers, they make Uber a risky choice. Drivers not knowing the roads constantly stick to their GPS and risk accidents. Uber is also very hesitant to remove drivers that you report.
Uber is expanding ways too fast and is compromising the safety of its passengers by doing so.
Fortunately we each have a choice. I’ll stick with Uber.
I have ridden in cabs in 20 cities in the US – I’ve never had a single city where I felt there was any sort of minimum standards. Running stop signs in NYC, horrible odor in Toronto, smoking in ABQ, rip off routes in San Diego, no shows in Nebraska…I’ve missed flights, I’ve had to take a shower getting out of the cab, and been ripped off more times than I can think of by cabs. So far, not once with Uber. Wonder why that is? Because the passengers influence if the driver is kept by Uber. Complaining to the TLC or dispatcher does nothing, a few 1 star on Uber and the driver is back to driving a cab for a cartel.
I don’t know how you can feel safe with Uber when the driver they employ drivers who are so dangerous – as you yourself admit.
Because I know they are dealt with–whereas the taxi drivers who have swerved all over the road will continue to do that.
I love how the Taxi Industry claims that Taxi’s are more regulated then Uber…If so, then why does the experience with cabs suck so much.
Regulation often doesn’t make things better for consumers, especially when it is burdensome and reduces flexibility. The free market will work. If Uber was as unsafe as the taxi union bosses claim, then people wouldn’t use it and the taxi industry would have nothing to fear. What should be happening is the regulations in taxis should be curbed as opposed to adding new regulation on Uber/Lyft/ride shares.