The first time I landed in Atlanta (as a destination, not a connection airport) I took a taxi from the Atlanta airport to Sandy Springs (exactly on the opposite side of downtown, just outside the Perimeter). Shortly after leaving the airport, my driver diverted off the interstate (ostensibly to avoid a traffic jam) and promptly proceeded to drive around in circles, lapping the same parking lot twice (he was about to do it a third time before I intervened) because his GPS was telling him to turn around and get back on the highway and he didn't quite realize that was happening and kept missing the U-turn. (Also, the overall rate is close to twice Uber's.)

I don't really trust Uber any further than I can throw my smartphone, but anything is better than a generic airport taxi. (At LGA, I've taken cabs more often than Atlanta -- it's harder to wait for Uber in the cold of winter -- and while I've never had any real trouble with Uber ever I've had two different taxi drivers pulled over and issued a ticket while I was in the taxi, both of them for running a red light on a left-hand-turn signal...)

Anyway. In conclusion: fuck you, Atlanta airport/government.

I find it interesting that most comments from people using uber are about price. To me it is rather about convenience. I have never been in Atlanta's airport but most airports and train stations I use in Europe have a 30min+ queue for taxis. To me the revolution was to be able to book on my smartphone, not have to carry cash and worry about whether I have enough to go back home, not having to wait outside of a bar looking for a cab but rather booking it from my table and only leaving the bar when the taxi is there, etc.

I remember a taxi ride with some colleagues in Paris. That was even before uber. The driver (a licensed taxi) was ranting about the fact that there were too many taxis. And to make his points he said something like "a few years ago, a client could call a taxi company and taxis were so rare that he wouldn't even be sure he would get a taxi, these were the good days". We were not very sympathetic.

In all the places I live in, taxis had a toxic monopole that needed to be challenged.

In many cities (Florence comes to mind) there is a tacit understanding where street vendors sell good on the streets, but have to be able to put them away quickly enough to "hide" them when the police car comes past on one of it's periodic circuits.

The variable enforcement of laws (like my example, and also like the laws around taxi pick-ups) is something I'm very interested in from a formal economics view. Are there any studies showing the how the loose enforcement impacts different groups?

It's not great that a private company is profiting off of crowdsourcing misdemeanours.

On the other hand where I live (Sydney), airport charges are a total rort. Trains to and from the city cost $17 (!) (versus $3 if you walk one stop). The taxi surcharge is $4. So... carry on.

Free: https://archive.is/hfbkz

I tried to catch an Uber ride from Heathrow before, and it was a total nightmare in terms of not knowing where to go, having come out of the wrong exit, and the driver ending up in a car park. Really, the airports benefit from allowing them too, as they reduce traffic congestion and the number of confused people milling around looking for where their ride is...

Interesting new application of the phrase "deadhead trips" here...

In the 1970's, that would have meant something else entirely :)

I'm not a savvy nor a regular traveler. When recently I had to travel, back and forth airport to home in a suburb, I compared the uber and regular taxi prices. I didnt find any difference so I opted for regular taxi's flat rate. A regulated service gives a sort of confidence compared to anything else.

Its last frontier will be wheelchair accessibility, surely.

Last frontier? I was just traveling around Europe, and most cities had limited/no service. Outside of London/Paris, no one knows what Uber is.

Can someone explain to me how Uber took off? Why did a company like it exist 5 years ago?