Oddly, I have seen some of these other gestures used to hail a cab - but luckily it's not very frequent.
I just had my first Uber ride today - it was such a breeze and my driver Julien was friendly and very easy to talk to. One of the first things I noticed (and checked for) was that he had a TLC issued license plate - so I know he is paying his dues somewhere. One of the more interesting parts of our conversation included the fact that he owns his own vehicle and pays his own TLC fees - but at this point he only takes fares via Uber. He said it's hassle free and the people seem friendlier overall (except the one lady who rated him 1 star because there was traffic - who knew Manhattan could have traffic congestion?!)
I like the idea of Uber and hope they succeed in the NYC marketplace - while just a little bit more money, the experience was far better than I have ever had in a standard medallion cab, and even some of the other car services out there.
I'll throw in another datapoint in here. I've lived in NYC for the last 2 months and have taken NYC taxis only five or six times since mostly everywhere I go is on the same subway line. I used Uber last weekend to get a ride to JFK last minute from Brooklyn and it was a fantastic experience. The price was similar to that of a taxi and I ended up paying much less because it was my first ride and I had both a $20 off first ride coupon (Add it! It's YelpSF, it worked for me in NYC) and I had $15 coupon from something else I don't remember, so I ended up paying barely $30 for a quick cab ride from Brooklyn to JFK.
The driver was extremely friendly, but he wasn't a regular taxi driver, he had a day-time job and did Uber on the weekends and nights only when he needed the money. I thought it was a bit weird since I've read articles on here about NYC's weird medallion deals, but it seemed great for both sides.
Oh, and I forgot: The driver was so god damn friendly it was a weird experience, we had a conversation the entire time to the airport versus being in regular taxis where the driver is on his cellphone talking to someone the entire time.
I just had my first Uber ride today - it was such a breeze and my driver Julien was friendly and very easy to talk to. One of the first things I noticed (and checked for) was that he had a TLC issued license plate - so I know he is paying his dues somewhere. One of the more interesting parts of our conversation included the fact that he owns his own vehicle and pays his own TLC fees - but at this point he only takes fares via Uber. He said it's hassle free and the people seem friendlier overall (except the one lady who rated him 1 star because there was traffic - who knew Manhattan could have traffic congestion?!)
I like the idea of Uber and hope they succeed in the NYC marketplace - while just a little bit more money, the experience was far better than I have ever had in a standard medallion cab, and even some of the other car services out there.