Vancouver

Ubers are supposed to be cheap. Like a fraction of the price of a taxi but also cleaner and safer.

That was always a scam. There are only 4 ways to make something less expensive:

1. Reduce profit margin
2. Reduce the cost of equipment and supplies
3. Reduce labour costs
4. Reduce regulatory costs

Uber is a nice case study:

1. By operating globally, their volume is high enough that they can shave margins to nearly nothing and still get bags of money.
2. They claim be only a booking platform, so they don't actually have to buy anything related to the frontline provision of the service.
3. As only a booking platform, they have no labour costs associated with providing the transportation service.
4. Their booking platform claim means they're not a taxi service, so they don't have to pay for the relevant licensing. It also supports their claim that the drivers are actually independent businesses so that the burdens of pay, payroll, worker's compensation, employment insurance, etc are the responsibility of the driver, not Uber.

Note that all of those costs that Uber is avoiding are still actual costs that must be borne by someone. That means the price to the consumer cannot actually go down, except in very narrow circumstances. Like when I'm driving my car some place that is compatible with your origin and destination, which is just a formalization of standard hitchhiking. When each driver is actually offering a true taxi service, the price must actually climb if the worker is to be fairly compensated, because there are no economies of scale.

The only way that Uber can work to provide taxi-like service at a lower price than traditional taxi service is for enough people to sign on that the formalization of hitchhiking can service the majority of trips. I'm guessing that the critical mass is probably well over 50% of car owners.

Safer is a function of training, regulation, and incentives. None of those are part of the Uber model. For safer taxis, mandate background checks, safety-oriented driver training, and structure the pay so that aggressive driving doesn't increase earnings.