Car service vs. Lyft

[nacho113]

The only concern I have is that I know the car service will be there when I need them to take us back to the airport, the lyft option, which I have not yet used, I do not know what time they will be there and with all the problems at airports I do not need us being late as this is the only flight back home with out 1 to 2 plane changes.

The new 4 hour window is because of the extra time needed at the airport because of long waits at TSA screening, construction at the airport and the increased passenger loads.
You will still want to get to the airport pretty early (2-3 hours before your flight) so I'm thinking a car service or Uber/Lyft is only going to net you an extra hour or so of sleep (or if your anything like me, I can never really get any sleep the night before we fly anyway)
Might be just as well taking DME back to the airport and not worry about when/if the car or Lyft will show up (if this is what is worrying you about these services)

 

[writerguyfl]

Well, my local cab company closed because the owner got involved with drugs.

If you judge an entire industry by the actions of the owner of one company, that means you should probably write-off the ride sharing industry. After all, one of Uber's founders was essentially forced out of his own company because of poor behavior.

I'm sorry you have such a poor cab company. I was reporting my experiences and never claimed they were universal.

I also note that you didn't provide a counter-argument to my statement that every ride at my cab company is recorded. I probably should have put that first in the list, as I consider my safety to be the most important factor for choosing transportation. That recording feature makes me feel safer. Also, I consider the ability to communicate to the drive in English to be a safety issue. And being able to call the company and get a live human while I'm in the cab in the event of a problem makes me feel more secure than sending an email, even if it's answered quickly.

Not trying to convince you to ridehire, but please dont try to convince everyone it's bad.

That's not what I'm doing. I'm merely pointing out that you have to look past the price at the details when choosing transportation. Perhaps you missed it. I went out of my way to acknowledge that not everyone will agree with me in my initial post. I said this:

"Those distinctions are important to some people. Other people won't care."

 

[kaytieeldr]

If you judge an entire industry by the actions of the owner of one company, that means you should probably write-off the ride sharing industry.

Where did I say that? This was the only cab company in my city.

 

[JimMIA]

I also note that you didn't provide a counter-argument to my statement that every ride at my cab company is recorded. I probably should have put that first in the list, as I consider my safety to be the most important factor for choosing transportation. That recording feature makes me feel safer.

So is every ride in my car when I'm driving for Uber/Lyft -- video and audio. I agree it's an important safety feature for drivers and riders. Dashcam usage is becoming quite widespread now for rideshare drivers. You may remember that in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack, many of the attackers were identified by Uber driver dashcams.

Some cities require taxis to have dashcams; most don't. It's not required here in Miami, and I've never seen one in a cab here. I don't know if Orlando cabs have dashcams or not.

Also, I consider the ability to communicate to the drive in English to be a safety issue.

I consider it much more of a convenience issue. In the event of a real safety situation, I would not be asking the driver what to do!

And, as I said above, where you live is more important in determining the fluency of drivers for both rideshare and taxi. In just about any major city, you will find a high percentage of taxi and rideshare drivers have English as a second (and often third) language.

And being able to call the company and get a live human while I'm in the cab in the event of a problem makes me feel more secure than sending an email, even if it's answered quickly.

Like you said:

"Those distinctions are important to some people. Other people won't care."

This distinction is really insignificant to me, but YMMV.