Last Thursday, I was meeting a co-worker for dinner in the City. This was a business meeting so I couldn’t be late. Of course, I started working on some task at work, got lost in thought and wound up leaving 15 minutes later than I wanted. It was a little over a mile to the restaurant so I proceeded with my original plans to walk. Ten minutes into the walk and I was still 10 minutes away but needed to be there in 3 minutes. I did what all of my San Francisco compatriots now do en masse; I used uber.

I opened the familiar uber screen, typed in my destination’s address and waited. The surge pricing dialog screen appeared and I willingly accepted the higher fare at which point the app crashed. I opened the app again and accepted surge pricing again. The car was 3 minutes away and I began waiting: 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 3 minutes, 3 minutes…

I looked up from my screen in exasperation mostly with myself but also with uber for being late. Lo and behold, as if the patron saint of San Francisco transit were smiling down upon me, 2 taxis were parked right in front of me. Without thinking I immediately cancelled the uber and climbed into the back of the taxi It had been over 2 years since I have taken a cab in San Francisco so the first question I asked was “Do you take credit cards?”. The driver replied that indeed he did causing me to notice some monitor/credit card processing hybrid thing in the back seat. He asked me, “where to” at which point I told him the destination and we were off.

The second thing I noticed was that the cab was clean. No cigarette smell or funky post Friday tech-bro binge funk. No trash on the floor, burns on the seats or other unidentified substance. Not the taxi cabs I remember in San Francisco.

The restaurant was near the Bay Bridge and the driver quickly navigated through the thursday night traffic that clogs every entrance to the Bay Bridge. The last thing I noticed, the driver did not use any navigation.

I arrived a couple minutes late to the restaurant and paid with my credit card. While paying wasn’t quite as effortless as with uber, the entire transaction took less than 15 seconds. More importantly, the taxi was spotless, the driver was uber polite, he actually knew how to navigate the streets of San Francisco, and, most importantly, no surge pricing. Next time, I’ll look for a taxi first.