This is one of the big problems I have with taxis and Uber and Lyft or whatever other company: There's too much profit motive to "cheat" or to try to skim or act just-slightly-unfair. Why is it unreasonable--not aimed at you, mostly a rhetorical question--to expect that a taxi driver not try to screw as many riders as he or she can?
This "interaction," or lack thereof, is why I stick to Metro and other transit in Seattle. If I need to go somewhere in a car, I grab a car2Go or a ZipCar. Metro has a set timetable, set routes, set fares, and set stops. I get on, tap my card, and I'm almost certainly guaranteed to follow a route I know in advance and pay a known price. Walking a couple of blocks at the beginning and end of my trip is worth it, to me, to not have to wonder how badly I'm gonna get taken.
(Yes, I can talk to the taxi or Uber driver to go another way if this is the "long way around." Yes, I can complain to the ride provider. But why do I want to put up with that?)
This "interaction," or lack thereof, is why I stick to Metro and other transit in Seattle. If I need to go somewhere in a car, I grab a car2Go or a ZipCar. Metro has a set timetable, set routes, set fares, and set stops. I get on, tap my card, and I'm almost certainly guaranteed to follow a route I know in advance and pay a known price. Walking a couple of blocks at the beginning and end of my trip is worth it, to me, to not have to wonder how badly I'm gonna get taken.
(Yes, I can talk to the taxi or Uber driver to go another way if this is the "long way around." Yes, I can complain to the ride provider. But why do I want to put up with that?)