Why I hate San Francisco cabs (and why I hope Lyft and Uber put them out of business)

I never thought I'd say this, but thank goodness for the SF Muni. Cause last night I took the bus home.

Alone.

At 1am.

I went out and had a great time with my former roommate and close friend, Cathy and a new friend, Ben, last night. Around midnight my phone was at 8% battery life, so I turned it off hoping to preserve it so I could call an Uber or Lyft home later. Of course, when I tried to turn my phone back on it was dead (thanks, Apple, for the shitbag update that is 6.1.3!)

So Cathy ordered me an Uber Taxi from her phone, we said our goodbyes as she and Ben were staying later, and I went outside to meet it at the designated spot. The app had said 4 minutes till the driver's arrival. And I don't know if it was because I didn't look like Cathy enough for him to stop and recognize me, or if he canceled or called her phone and got no answer, but no Uber Taxi ever came. But, at this time of night downtown SF was crawling with cabs, so not a huge deal I should just be able to flag one down.

So I did.

Me: *gets in cab and sits down* "Yeah I'm going to [address in Outer Richmond]."

Cabbie: "Oh, I don't have time to go to Outer Richmond."

This actually translates to "I can't get a return fare in Outer Richmond and I'm a cheap dick so fuck you and your need to get home." Yes, I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to do this and this happened with two different cabbies last night! And this has happened before to me with SF cabs and trying to get back home.

After the second cab turned me down I happened to see a 38 bus coming and just decided to take that home. Was a little slow, but at least it was free and more reliable than the cabs here.

This isn't the first time I've had to deal with cabbies denying us service after finding where we want to go, but has been the first time I've had to deal with it alone. I guess I'll just invest in a backup battery charger so I never have to go without my access to Uber or Lyft ever again.