In general, we prefer to use cabs. I'm not a fan of "sharing" apps and what they've done to the economy in SF (to say nothing of the street congestion). I'll occasionally use Lyft, but especially dislike Uber because of their corporate philosophy - perfectly demonstrated by the middle finger they just gave the California PUC who told them to register for the self-driving car program before putting them on SF streets (which, among other things would require them to report accidents and self-driving mistakes)
On our last NY visit, we were able to hail a cab quickly on 44th near 6th (no surprise). However, in the drizzle, it took almost 20 minutes to catch a cab on 2nd near Union Square on a Saturday afternoon.
We just used Flywheel on Sunday afternoon in SF. A show had just let out downtown near SF Union Square. There were others trying to hail non-existent cabs. We got matched with one immediately that was around the corner (It took about 3 minutes for it to arrive because of one-way streets and slow traffic, but that's city life). We were able to track its progress. When we got in the cab, the others were still waiting. When we arrive, the payment and tip are all taken care of. It has all the convenience of a ride sharing app, while using real, regulated taxicabs. In SF, all the cabs use Flywheel. (Yellow cabs also use the Yello app, but it's limited to them.) It is more convenient than hailing a cab if they aren't flooding the streets.
Updated On: 12/20/16 at 01:43 PM
