Last night, I was driving home and got a hail from a suburban metro station near RFK stadium. It was quite a ways away. I don't want to take fares from places like metro stations that are generally well serviced by taxis, but I figured an event must have cleaned out the supply of taxis and maybe there were a bunch of people needing rides. I've been stranded at an airport with an hour wait for a cab to show up and it was not fun. So I took the fare.
I ended up driving by a long line of taxis to pick up the fare. I have some thoughts on avoiding this situation in the competitive-cooperation (coopetition) post I am formulating.
I asked the fare why she did not take a taxi. It turns out is was a young adult recently in town for an internship. Her mother told her to use Uber and she did despite the short trip, long wait for an Uber ride and the available taxis. Sweet kid. After some discussion, it appears the Uber hail had rolled off at least one and possibly two other drivers before getting to me many miles away. I explained that I had come from quite a ways away but had thought there might have been no cabs available. I did not think to remind the fare that they have the option to cancel without penalty within a couple of minutes of hail when they see how long it will take the driver to arrive.
Sometimes, you should just take a cab.
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