DTLA Taxi? (San Diego, Nice: 2013, apartment, credit card)

[kasuga888]

HI

Does anyone know if taxi in DT will pick people up for short commutes like city taxis or are they all waiting for the big distance/fare customers? IE from apartment to union station/club/etc Aprox 1 mile . Either by running into them where they are waiting around or via phone.

[jm1982]

Not too sure, but you could use a service like Uber or Lyft. Nice part is you can request a taxi and know where they are from your phone. The rates are also less I believe.

https://www.uber.com/

Lyft | On-demand ridesharing

There are others as well...Uber also has a ton of promos for first time users like $20, etc. They seem to be doing a lot of marketing .

[disgruntled la native]

Why would it be different in dtla vs somewhere else? Taxis in general like to moan and complain about fares. Usually they like longer ones and will give you major attitude for short trips. That's why I don't deal with them. Go with uber or lyft. They won't give you a hard time for going 1 mile.

[ProjectMersh]

I have taken taxi's for shop hops in downtown LA no problem. There is a taxi stand/line at 7th/Fig where the taxis line up. I have flagged down empty taxis late at night when I was looking for a (short) ride as in 1 mile. But you can't always count on finding one that is empty/available. But you can also just call for a dipatch.

[latino_esq]

I suggest you always carry cash if you're going to travel such short distances. For the most part, drivers may not want to take you such short distances, and even less so if there's an event going around town and you only have a credit card. They may even drive away as you tell them you only had a credit card. This happened to me all the time when I lived in San Diego. I can't really attest to the cabs in DTLA since when I lived there I just walked. But make sure you tell them you have cash and you should be good.

[Aldous9]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

Why would it be different in dtla vs somewhere else? Taxis in general like to moan and complain about fares. Usually they like longer ones and will give you major attitude for short trips. That's why I don't deal with them. Go with uber or lyft. They won't give you a hard time for going 1 mile.

I drove a taxi for a year in the late 90's and my experience was that the shorter rides were not bad at all. You could make quite a bit of you had 1 mile fares all night. And the reason is because you are getting people out of the cab quickly and even with short rides the meter started at $3.

The distance of the ride did not matter that much. The worst fares where fares that took you to parts of the city where it would be very unlikely to get a return fare.

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by Aldous9

I drove a taxi for a year in the late 90's and my experience was that the shorter rides were not bad at all. You could make quite a bit of you had 1 mile fares all night. And the reason is because you are getting people out of the cab quickly and even with short rides the meter started at $3.

The distance of the ride did not matter that much. The worst fares where fares that took you to parts of the city where it would be very unlikely to get a return fare.

I agree, and Uber drivers especially like short trips because they get a minimum of $15. But I've found a lot of cab drivers are mad about the short trips, especially when they've had to wait in line for a long time at a hotel, mall, or bar area.

[kasuga888]

15 bucks is a bit much for a mile. Normally, i would not mind to walk but would like a option when returning late from a bar/club or having to carry luggage to union station.

Too bad they don't have a DASH bus operating 24hrs or sufficently thru the weekend. It would be great if they had one bus that just travel thru all the big roads every 30 mins during non-core hours.

[jm1982]

Only time I used Uber (in the valley) it was pretty good. It was actually UberX which is a cheaper version of their black car service. It was a very short ride and the driver was quite nice. It was probably a mile ride or even less.

I would definitely use the service again. I don't think it was that much, maybe the $15 thing is new.. or maybe the company is using their own money to supplement the drivers..

They have a ton of investors money now and are expanding like crazy. They are even overseas now.

Even in China! .. Uber Drives Into A Second Chinese City

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Only time I used Uber (in the valley) it was pretty good. It was actually UberX which is a cheaper version of their black car service. It was a very short ride and the driver was quite nice. It was probably a mile ride or even less.

I would definitely use the service again. I don't think it was that much, maybe the $15 thing is new.. or maybe the company is using their own money to supplement the drivers..

They have a ton of investors money now and are expanding like crazy. They are even overseas now.

Even in China! .. Uber Drives Into A Second Chinese City

I should clarify, Uber black car minimum is $15, which usually takes you up to a mile, maybe 1.5

Uber X's minimum is $8.