As a brief reminder: scores of taxi drivers plan to strike tomorrow to protest new credit card fees and delays to cab fare increases. As one driver-activist in charge of rallying the cabbies told the Examiner last week, the idea of the strike is "to make taxi gridlock." In other words: don't expect to flag down a cab tomorrow. Meanwhile, Uber, a service that allows smartphone users to hail limos and towncars, hopes to use this opportunity to snatch up your business by offering towncar rides for the same rates as a San Francisco taxi cab.
In a release sent to users of their service today, the on-demand car request startup says they hope to "do our part to keep San Francisco moving" while the taxi drivers "circle City Hall in hopes of getting a better deal." In a somewhat ironic twist, Uber had to ask their drivers (private limo owners) to take a pay cut in order to match the cab rates, but tomorrow from 12:01 a.m. until midnight, all Uber rides within SF proper will be 50% off
We've given Uber a couple test drives ourselves and have to admit it's a swanky alternative to the current stand-on-the-street-and-wave method. Plus there's the added bonus of arriving at your destination in a towncar, but the usual rates ($8 just for hopping in, plus nearly five bucks per mile after that) are steep if you're heading out on the town solo.
