Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The taxi experience in cities other than NYC, Chicago, and SF got a million times better. It wouldn't be fair to NYC and Chicago to compare them to SF. In my mind, the completely horrible broken experience of the SF taxi system was what created Uber & friends. I've been living in SF pre-Uber and having moved from a big city, the taxi system just drove me nuts, I could not understand why it was that fucked up. If it…
The part I really disliked about the NYC cabs is that you never knew how much it going to cost you. And similarly the driver never knew where they would have to go. With Uber, both parties have this information ahead of time. Huge improvement.
I went to NYC for the first time about 20 years ago. I was looking for a cab from JFK to midtown. A limo driver said he'd take me for $30 (more or less -- I don't exactly remember). I had no idea really if that was a good price, but I remember thinking, "at least I know what the price will be," and I took his offer.