Data Mining: When Is A Taxi Cheaper Than Uber

According to this study, you can save money by using Uber for longer trips and sticking with taxis for shorter trips.

The results make for interesting reading. “Uber appears more expensive for prices below 35 dollars and begins to become cheaper only after that threshold,” say Mascolo and co. That’s interesting because human mobility is characterized by vast numbers of short trips and relatively small numbers of long trips. “This observation therefore suggests that Uber’s economical model exploits this trend of human mobility in order to maximize revenue,” say Mascolo and co.

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I honestly have never found Uber cheaper than a Taxi. Same price sometimes, but never cheaper.

I dunno why Uber is even a thing, stupid kids will use anything these days....

The only reason I see to use it is because when you call a cab (at least in Pittsburgh) it only has a 50% chance of actually showing up. Uber actually shows.

In nyc (or basically any taxi service that has a rate card), you can just compare the rates directly

UberX: $3 base + $0.40/min + $2.15/mile, minimum $8, plus possible surge pricing

NYC cab: $2.50 base + ~$0.50/min + ~$2.50/mile, no minimum
(50 cents per 1/5 mile or 50 cents per 60s in slow traffic or when vehicle is stopped.. might be slightly different methods of calculation)

You might not be able to compare rates if things are based on a flat-rate

Uber/Lyft works for regions where you can't find cabs easily... you can track when your uber car is arriving, harder to track when you call the yellow cab company and they give you (bad?) ETAs?

Frankly Uber is amazing. I've been using it the last few months for almost everything when I can't use a bus (I live in Austin, decided to see what I can do without a car).

Way better service than cabs. 10 minutes after making a request without fail, an Uber shows up unless it's way out in the boondocks. I've had cabs take an hour using their app. Pretty fucking ridiculous. Also the Hail a Cab app is just painfully shitty. The Uber app is much better.

I'll never go back to cabs. The cab industry has reason to be concerned.

TonyZ said:

I dunno why Uber is even a thing, stupid kids will use anything these days....

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Faster pickup than a taxi, and generally the cars don't smell like urine and vomit with a scary looking driver you are pretty sure works for ISIS on the weekends.

My Uber rides are consistently 50% cheaper than a taxi. From my house to downtown, a taxi costs $20. The same exact ride cost $9 or $10 in an Uber. Not to mention it's easier and faster to call an Uber.

The only thing I've ever been gotten on is their Surge pricing. At one point I paid $40 for my usual $10 ride. I could've waited 30 mins for surge to end but I basically paid their "convenience fee."

Well if we removed the part of our population that thinks tipping for everyday jobs where there is already pay should be mandatory and not just a nice gesture....

yup I did it, I opened that can of worms.

I've used Uber many times and I would take Uber over a taxi hands down. I did some analysis even for short trips and Uber came up to be the same price as the taxi with the taxi sometimes being more expensive due to stops at lights. Cabs are generally dirty and not as clean as Uber drivers.

The app also is awesome. The uber driver comes within minutes.

I would be very concerned if I was a cab driver.

trick_m0nkey said:

I'll never go back to cabs. The cab industry has reason to be concerned.

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XViper said:

I would be very concerned if I was a cab driver.

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And they are.

Part of their outrage is warranted, part of it not.

I would agree with the cab industry that it is grossly unfair that they are competing as a regulated industry in most cities vs an unrelated one, and all the difficulties that come along with it.

This aside - however - Uber is doing a much better job at providing the service people want, and I am all for outcompeting rivals by performing better for your customers. That's the way the free market is supposed to work.

In order to make it fair, we need to align the regulatory environment though.

Boston is a prime example. A Taxi medallion (in boston they are called medallions, elsewhere they have different names like hackney license or taxi license, etc.) allowing you to operate a cab ion the city of Boston costs an estimated $700k.

For an uber driver, a portion of their fare goes to Uber, after which their fares pay for their car, maintenance, gas and cleaning. The rest they take home.

A cab driver has the same costs but arranged differently.

Cab drivers usually rent their cars (and use of the medallion) from a cab dispatch company. The cab company provides the car, and does the maintenance, but the driver pays for the gas themselves.

So a cab driver pays a fee for use of the car and the medallion to the cab company. They use their fares to pay for this, as well as for gas. Whatever is left over they take home. Cab drivers are notoriously squeezed when gas prices go up because of this. Rates are usually regulated, and as such they get squeezed between their cab fees, gas costs and their rates.

Either way, right now the cabbies are paying a large amount of money for the use of the medallions, whereas the likes of uber and lyft don't.

I'm all for fixing this, and creating a level playing field, but once that is done, let them play away, and to the victor go the spoils.

The sad part here is that Uber drivers don't have an amazing takehome after all is said and done, but cabbies have it way way worse.

Everyone says uber is awesome but I don't care that it is clean, drivers are friendly...

All that means fuck all to me.

Is it cheaper? That is the only thing that matters and according to this article, it isn't always.

Jesus Christ. if it isn't always cheaper, then it isn't AWESOME.

Staples said:

Everyone says uber is awesome but I don't care that it is clean, drivers are friendly...

All that means fuck all to me.

Is it cheaper? That is the only thing that matters and according to this article, it isn't always.

Jesus Christ. if it isn't always cheaper, then it isn't AWESOME.

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I would partially agree.

Another aspect that is important - however - is "are they reliable".

You only have to have one cab not show up at 5am when you need to go to the airport, miss your flight and meeting across the country for this to become a huge seller.

This becomes even bigger if it is your vacation that gets screwed up.

As long as I don't feel like I am going to get herpes by just getting in the car, or feel like I am going to get abducted by the driver, the cleanliness and friendliness aren't that big a deal to me.

Reliability on the other hand? This is huge.

If you are just riding home from the bar at night, this is a minor deal. You can call another cab. When you need to be at the airport, it is a much bigger deal.

Zarathustra[H];1041493015 said:

I would partially agree.

Another aspect that is important - however - is "are they reliable".
....................'

If you are just riding home from the bar at night, this is a minor deal. You can call another cab. When you need to be at the airport, it is a much bigger deal.

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YUP!

Uber all-at-once solves everything that's wrong with most cabs

1. I get picked up reliably!, usually less than 5min (and I can see the driver's live eta)
-Safety aside, this is prolly the most important part of taking a taxi service, reliability. I can't count the # of times I've been left stranded by cab companies.
2. Clean, non-ashtray smelling ride (sometimes with a comp. bottle of water)
3. Payment occurs instantly and without any fumbling for my wallet and without threat to tip or the "I have no change" or "debit machine no work" BS
4. Diver is never yapping or texting on the phone while driving (during the ride the driver's phone is in GPS mode)...
5. Since the route is pre-calculated I don't get driven the long way around.
6. Feedback on both sides, very quickly eliminates the disenfranchised
7. Uber's been consistently 40%-45% cheaper than the identical cab ride to the airport here

and last but not least:
newer cars (Max 6year Uber vs. Max7 year cab companies)

And don't even lament about insurance. Uber has umbrella commercial insurance, 1mm for each incident +

cities will eventually adopt the uber type model (progress is inevitable)
maybe once licensing/oversight is settled everyone can move on.

Zarathustra[H];1041493015 said:

I would partially agree.

Another aspect that is important - however - is "are they reliable".

You only have to have one cab not show up at 5am when you need to go to the airport, miss your flight and meeting across the country for this to become a huge seller.

This becomes even bigger if it is your vacation that gets screwed up.

As long as I don't feel like I am going to get herpes by just getting in the car, or feel like I am going to get abducted by the driver, the cleanliness and friendliness aren't that big a deal to me.

Reliability on the other hand? This is huge.

If you are just riding home from the bar at night, this is a minor deal. You can call another cab. When you need to be at the airport, it is a much bigger deal.

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Completely agree. Uber has always been reliable, and just as important, transparent. You can see your driver and where he/she is in real time. You can call or text. If they cancel, you know right away and it's transferred to someone else instantly. This alone is a huge improvement over cabs and worth whatever fairly meager increase you would pay a taxi driver.

Speaking of the airport, last time I took a cab from the airport, the bill was $45 and I had to pay another $5 tip. This is for 7 miles. I they have special stops at the airport and I think the airport gets a cut so the rate is higher than general. I will be using Uber next time I go out of town (which is in a week). I will give it a try. I don't see how Uber can possibly cost more in this situation.

In Sacramento, they were trying to mandate that cab drivers take showers, have clean vehicle interiors, and be able to clearly speak english and they taxi industry went apeshit. I think it's clever what the Uber and Lyft folks are doing.

TonyZ said:

I dunno why Uber is even a thing, stupid kids will use anything these days....

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