Even finding a cab in NYC is a pain in the ass. If you're in Manhattan, cab drivers can deliberately discriminate against you if you want to travel to Brooklyn or Queens. The number of times I've had it happen to me makes me have zero sympathy about the idea of Lyft or Uber owning the NYC market. On top of that, Queens and Brooklyn are big, so it's improbable to flag a cab outside of very specific neighbourhoods.
Get in the cab, shut the door, tell them you're going to BK or Queens. Problem solved. If you act like a rube, you're gonna get hustled. I'd rather have that (and be able to call the city government and potentially have the person's livelihood terminated in the event of shenanigans) than 8x surge pricing because a middleman feels like it.
