To be honest, few people here in London bother with taxis. Public transport is very good, can be faster than sitting in traffic, and is cheaper. Most folks ordering taxis either don't know where they are going, missed the last train or are wealthy enough to not care about the cost. Uber literally made no impact on the quality if life to your average Londoner and won't be missed.
>> Uber literally made no impact on the quality if life to your average Londoner and won't be missed.
As a Londoner I dispute that claim. It's made a huge difference for a lot of people. Until the night tube's arrival last year getting home from late nights out was expensive, difficult, or impossible. It's quite useful when moving flat - something younger Londoners tend to do quite a lot. I had to go somewhere with some heavy equipment last week and if it weren't for Uber I would have spent a fortune on taxi's. When I was ill for several months which prevented me taking the tube I used Uber to get to/from work. It was expensive but affordable. Taxi's would have been too expensive and I would have been screwed.
Finally - I received half a dozen messages from friends within minutes of the news being announced. Looks like it will be missed.
I read what many Londoners say about Uber like they never heard about Addison Lee cabs, which existed years before, offer a nice app, professional drivers and fixed tariffs. Last time I checked, tariffs were about 20% higher than Uber. But depending on congestion, could end up cheaper. Most of my friends were praising Uber, but I was warning them that their prices are unsustainable and slightly higher easy-to-hail cab services with apps have been for years on the market largely unnoticed by hipsters ;-)
Sure you can. Nearest car is shown on the map and in my experience there was always something very close. Just choose "NOW" and it'll get booked.
Besides, comparing pre-booking, it's done properly with AL, because it sends you a confirmation right away after driver accepts. With Uber the system would simply "schedule" your booking for the time specified and then fire request up as usual. Which means you're at a mercy of nearby driver's acceptance. And you have a false expectations that the pre-booking is more timely assured.
But there are fast and frequent train services that cost less than that, so it doesn't make a huge difference whether or not Uber is an option for that route.
So get the AL to Paddington then get on the Heathrow Express. The Heathrow Express has never been very crowded in my experience, and has at least as much room for luggage as a cab does.
When you say Taxi are you specifically referring to Black Cabs? Pre-booked radio Cabs are reasonably priced, perfect for moving (it's what people used before Uber and still use today) and for regular scheduled trips like going to work.
For late night trips, Uber was very handy for that short window of time before the night tube. It still has some use when you can fill the car and get the per-person price down but unless it's very late you'll just sit in traffic.
I could not disagree more - often times, especially if travelling with multiple people it is far more convenient, comfortable and can even be more affordable than taking public transport. While I agree that London has great public transport, Uber has been a game changer for myself and many people I know.
Lived here all my life, no idea what you mean, it's always been great, and even when it was run-down it was still better than nearly all other cities at the time.
Thats the problem. You never experienced anywhere better. I mean they only recently got an underground that operates past midnight. Barcelona has had that for years, its way cheaper than London, and no one here seems to think it is anything special.
Well—aside from the fact that London's public transport was pretty good ten years ago—it's not the same, no. There have been substantial improvements in the past 10 years, including the expansion of the Overground service, new rolling stock all over the place, capacity improvements, some 24-hour running at weekends, clawback of TfL Rail, system-wide contactless card support, improved bus services, the imminent arrival of Crossrail…
Sure, if you live in Zone 2, or live near a tube station and are travelling radially.
If you live further out, getting home at night can be a multi-bus, multi-hour affair. And if you're not going in or out of zone 1, the odds of their being a convenient bus route is slim, and again, diminishes the further out you get.
Pre-uber I'd take the night bus, as I'm not paying £50 or £60 for a black cab from town to my home.
Post uber that same journey is now less than £25 and well worth paying for to avoid the occasional horrors on the night bus.
Agree with the first part of your comment, as it relates to black cabs. Only wealthy or hapless Londoners use them. Otherwise they’re just a tourist attraction.
Strongly disagree with the latter part.
My impression was that Uber, through price and convenience, created significant demand for Private Hire travel in London where it didn’t previously exist.
> My impression was that Uber, through price and convenience, created significant demand for Private Hire travel in London where it didn’t previously exist.
Public transport isn't great - often cramped and with delays. It's expensive - if anything involves bus then tube then for two people Uber Pool is often cheaper. Uber is often faster, and it's widely used and supports a massive amount of employment.
Most people don't order taxis much daily true, but they do widely order Ubers because there's a massive price difference. And on nights out, taxis are often used because until recently we had no night tubes and now we only have a few lines and only on weekends.
I don't want to flame but this post is so wrong it makes me wonder if you're living in a different London.
Yeah if you cherry pick a long journey that's possible to do in one go on the tube you can obviously find situations where public transport is cheaper. Most of the time it is. But there also exist journeys for which Uber is faster and cheaper, especially with two or more people, and especially at night.
Or journeys where Uber is marginally more expensive but people are willing to pay £1 for convenience.
I'm not sure what we're arguing about, the fact that it's 40k drivers and the everybody's phones just received several messages about it proves that there's demand.
It specifically says that people who miss the last train get cabs. So yeah, you've not really disputed anything they said. You like to get Uber? That's nice for you. I just use my local minicab company as they're almost as cheap and way more reliable. The price difference is only massive if you're silly enough to ask a black cab to take you 20 miles. Otherwise it's not really that much, nevermind "massive".
Also, if you're spending lots on public transport, just get a damn travel card. Transport's only expensive for tourists buying each on every journey. Londoners know how to keep their costs down, which makes me wonder if you're a tourist or business traveller who doesn't actually live here.
I live here, on a pretty much average London income, from zones 1 to 3 and have for ten years. I cycle so I don't have a travel card. The general point of the post above was that London doesn't want/need Uber, which just isn't true. The point about us having a great public transport system also isn't true, Londoners infamously hate the tube. It didn't get to support 40k drivers from novelty value.
Basically I _am_ your average Londoner, by income etc, and Uber has made my life better. And it's not because I'm rich or stupid. The post I replied to was just too heavily biased against Uber to see the obvious utility for a lot of Londoners.
