Taxi service is not homogenous across the planet.<p>Taxi in SF <i>was</i> awful, and probably still is. But even there, there were pockets of decent service in the most profitable corners of the city.<p>In other places it works really well. Sounds like you live in a place like that.<p>Uber needs to fight the law because the Taxi lobby controls so much of it. In the Game of Crony Capitalism, you lobby or you die.