Lyft and Uber Are Pushing Cabs Out of Cities. Is That Good?

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Cabs once filled the streets, a last-ditch effort for people trying to get about a city. In New York, cabs are among the worst forms of public transportation. They’re wasteful, transporting just one passenger, inefficient, polluting, space consuming, and inconvenient. Then Uber and Lyft came along. They gave city cabs some competition all over the world, and made ride sharing. People choose Lyfts and Ubers over cabs. Why? Cabs had a monopoly on the market for years, but as soon as a service came along that gave users better service, they left cabs behind.

Now cabbies are protesting, blocking traffic, and forcing citizens to use their services. They’re losing their livelihoods and investments. But is there a middle ground where everyone wins, the cabbies, the consumers, the environment, pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, and other people in cities?

Of course, I why else would I be writing about it?

What’s Wrong With Cabs?

I’ve lived in NYC for about 5 years now. I feel like I’m just starting to really understand it and it’s problems. And, like many people who have lived in NYC for a few years, I hate cabs. But it’s not something I’ve always felt. In fact, when I first moved to the city, I loved them. They were everywhere, and seemed convenient. But as Lyft and Uber grew, it became obvious that taxis were the worst way to get around the city. Here’s why.

Congestion

A typical cab could comfortably fit five people in it, yet a cab typically only has about two people in it. That means it’s wasting space on the road. In cities like LA and NYC, congestion is a nightmare. Traveling during rush hour by car is something no one wants to do. But if more people took buses or used a ride sharing service like Lyft or Uber, they’d be fewer cars on the road. That would reduce traffic, shorten commutes, reduce time when engines are idling, and make roads safer for pedestrians and other people using the road.

Carpooling

So why not carpool in a cab? It’s one fair per ride. There’s no way to split it. Even if you want to bring a friend along, you still have to work something out with the cab driver, and they won’t always agree to it. This is just a waste of road space, and pollutes far more than it should, all because cab companies would rather force people into two fares, rather than splitting one. People want to make the green decision and share a ride, but cabs won’t let us do that.

Inconvenience

When I call a Lyft, I know where I’m going to get picked up, if I have to walk, when they’re going to arrive, what traffic is like, what route they’ll be taking, who will be in the car for the ride, the driver’s name, their license number, their rating, and more. When you take a cab you know nothing until you get in the car. Even if you used an app, the driver won’t have the address you entered, you’ll still have to tell them, likely multiple times while you sit at the side of the road. You’ll have their name and taxi number, but that’s it. Now you can pay through the app, but you have to do this by entering a code and syncing your app. It’s not automatic. Nothing is convenient, and you’ll have to repeat your address often.

Safety and Accountability

With a Lyft, you know everything about your driver before you get in the car. With a taxi, you just don’t. How many red lights does this guy run? Does he ever drive on the wrong side of the road? There’s no way to know. Anyone living in New York for a few years can tell you a story about a cab nearly hitting them. I was nearly hit a few months ago by a cab running a red light. Another friend of mine lost his laptop to a cab that nearly drove up on the curb. The driver who nearly hit me drove off before I could get information. Same with my friend. There’s a sense of invincibility they have. They break traffic laws and don’t believe they should be held accountable.

And why should they? As long as they don’t get caught, what consequences do they face? If a Lyft driver does something unsafe, their rider can report them and they’ll have a harder time getting fares. But a cab driver? Beyond reporting them the the police—an overly drastic action—there’s nothing else you can do.

Why Don’t Cabbies Abandon Cabs?

Lyft and Uber are pushing cabs off the road. Congestion is getting worse, and the only way to make money is to switch. So why haven’t they all abandoned their cabs? It’s not that simple.

NYC Cab Medallions

This is a big one for many career cabbies in NYC. To simplify it, NYC releases a limited number of “medallions.” These medallions allow a cab driver to operate, to pick up fares from streetside and take them to their destination. Without that medallion, you can’t operate a yellow cab in the city. You could perhaps operate a boro cab, the green cabs, but those are regulated and limited as well, and can’t do streetside pickups in lower Manhattan.

Because of this and artificial inflation from unscrupulous lenders, the price of medallions skyrocketed. There are 13,587 taxi medallions in NYC. That’s a very limited number of a valuable commodity. Medallions were things to buy and consider a million dollar investment. It was, for many cab drivers, a retirement fund.

Now, in part thanks to Uber and Lyft, the value of these medallions is dropping. Though the biggest price drops are due to artificial inflation by rich investors, the bubble bursting comes down to competition fears. Uber and Lyft are, essentially, private taxi companies. They can’t pick you up curbside from hailing them. You must use the app. But this is, as it turns out, preferable. The value of those medallions, and people’s retirement funds, is dropping fast and hard. Imagine being in your 60’s, sitting on your retirement funds, making a living, and then realizing you may never be able to retire. That you may not even be able to make a living.

People die. Suicide rates among these cab drivers are rising at a shocking and disturbing rate.

 

Owned Vehicles

To operate a cab, you have to follow a list of guidelines. You have to own a certain vehicle and have it equipped with a payment interface. You need a medallion, or to be a part of an approved taxi service that allows you to drive one of their medallion cabs. You need to paint your car yellow or green, and have the ‘T’ logo on the side, along with other identifying information. There are many stipulations to owning a cab. As such, once you meet those requirements, you’ve made a great investment. Normally, this pays off. Cab drivers can bring in over 90,000 a year, though operating costs mean they usually only take home half of that. But thanks to competition from Uber and Lyft, cabbies have to work much longer hours, often still for less pay.

Low Pay with Uber and Lyft

A new law passed in NYC says that Uber and Lyft drivers must make $15/hour. This has raised prices and caused the prices of short trips to rise. However, it addresses an issue Uber and Lyft have had. Their low prices may sometimes undercut or match cabs, but their high costs mean less of that goes to the drivers. A Lyft or Uber driver couldn’t make the same as a New York cab driver. However, now that Uber and Lyft are growing in popularity, and medallion prices have plummeted, there’s no good way to earn a living driving people to their destinations.

Things are getting better for Uber and Lyft drivers in some cities, but not all of them.

What’s the Middle Ground?

City Investment

Cities need to invest in their cabs. They need to have apps that duplicate the features of their competition from Lyft. That means they need to be able to send the destination to drivers after they accept a ride (to remove the possibility of destination discrimination), allowing drivers to pick up other riders along their route, and collecting payment through apps entirely. The apps need to allow riders to rate their drivers. Basically, cabs need to become city-subsidized competitors to Lyft and Uber. The only way they’ll survive would be through competing, not through regulation. Unless there’s an outright ban, Lyft and Uber will find ways around regulations, much to the delight of consumers.

Controlled Expansion

We can’t allow Lyft and Uber to expand exponentially. If we do, they’ll over-saturate the market, drive profits down for drivers, cause medallion values to drop, increasing cabbie suicides, and increase congestion. We need to ensure that Uber and Lyft drivers can make a living and control the number of cars in cities. This is part of a middle ground with cab drivers, but will also improve the lives of Lyft and Uber drivers.

Fewer Cars

This is, I think, the most important thing for cities of the future. Fewer cars. In order for cities to go green, improve safety for pedestrians, and speed up transportation, car traffic will have to be reduced. The ways to do this are numerous, but cities must commit to every measure.

1. Improved subway/train lines. Better reliability, speeds, and perhaps most importantly, safety.
2. Dedicated bus lanes, so buses can keep to schedules and bypass traffic.
3. More bike lanes, for bikes, scooters, skateboards, and other alternative forms of transportation. If people can do so safely, they’ll choose cheap, fast, and green methods of travel, like cycling or skateboarding.
4. Higher congestion pricing. Charge drivers more getting to and from city centers during rush hour. This is especially true in NYC.

Cars often have one or two people in them. You could safely fit six or more cyclists in the space a single car driver takes up. Fewer cars on the road means less congestion. That makes those who do need cars more likely to get where they want quickly and safely, and more likely to use ride sharing services.

No one thing is more important for the city of tomorrow than reducing car traffic.

Will We Get It?

Investment and a reduction of cars on the road. Simple goals, right? Not for city governments. These are slow to do anything for low income Americans, or people actually living in the cities. The MTA is famous for being controlled by people from out of the city who have never ridden the subway every day. They’re people who barely use the trains once a month. So, will we ever see improvements to public transportation?

Not for a long time. But it’s not just affluenza and corruption holding us back.

Cab Protests

Cab drivers have been slow to adopt any measure. They’ve protested against laws that ended discrimination, including destination discrimination. Some will certainly protest something that could extend the length of their trips through the boroughs. Cab drivers have protested nearly every change they haven’t asked for. Many will prefer the technology improvements, but they may not like the ride sharing features.

Investment Costs

This truly is the big one. Cities will need to invest in public transportation and infrastructure. It’s tough to get cities to do anything to actually help the people of the city, especially when it’ll involve taxing the wealthy and businesses more. Cities will need to invest in their people, and, for some reason, they have a hard time doing this.

Is it possible? Of course. But our cities will need progressive mayors and supportive state governments to make their plans work. They’re going to need to invest in a city’s population in order to make their cities job centers. These investments will save cabs, improve conditions for private companies, and make our roads safer and less congested. There’s a middle ground, but it’s going to be difficult getting there.

Update: I Took a Cab Last Night…

Last night, I waited outside of a popular area for a Lyft. The Lyft driver never moved, despite traffic moving. I decided to call to see if he would prefer I walk the two blocks to where he was parked. No answer. I canceled the ride. Cabs were lined up outside, so I hopped in one. I figured, with all the terrible things happening to cab drivers, perhaps it’s time to give them another shot.

Big mistake.

I tell him the address I want to go. He doesn’t pull out a phone or GPS. I tell him the (well known) neighborhood, he asks, “Where’s that?” I tell him to head for a particular bridge. He asks how. At this point, I’ve decided this moron isn’t worth my time, but he finally pulls out an old GPS unit and, with much repeating, plugs in the address between glances at the road.

He’s a psycho, using gaps in parked cars to pass, honking his horn constantly (and for no reason), and is called an asshole by three people in this short trip. A cyclist, an old couple crossing the street where he wanted to turn, and another old lady he honked at because he almost hit her using the gap passing method. It was unsafe, misguided, and he kept venting his frustrations at me for being outside of Manhattan.

This is why cabs have died. Anything would have been better than that cab. Cabs have set a low bar, and Uber and Lyft leaped over it. What did they expect? City investment could fix many of these problems, but the biggest thing to fix would be cab culture, which treats customers, pedestrians, other drivers, cyclists, and everyone else like garbage.

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Sources:

• Rodney E. Hood, NY Daily News
• Winnie Hu, The New York Times
• Miranda Katz, Wired
• Brian M. Rosenthal, The New York Times