Uber vs. Lyft

From what I've read online I bet more people say lyft is best.

I am also interested to here what people think as I have only used Uber. Also Lift isn't even in the Applevis app directery. I'm not sure why.

Still can't find it and yeah I was spelling Lyft wrong at first. Can't find it that way either.

Please stop using and promoting Uber... The CEO is a major prick/Trump supporter. His company is well known for paying their drivers less then they deserve, discriminating against various ethnic groups and those with disabilities and lately, stealing self-driving tech from other companies. Lift, on the other hand is a progressive, friendly company who treats their drivers right, pays them their fair share and supports causes that Uber tends to discriminate against. Don't believe Uber's lies... I've used Lift exclusively since they became available in my area, and I've been very happy with the app, the service and of course the drivers I've had. Feel free to dispute any of what I say, but seriusly ask the driver how much he got paid for the trip, compare it to what you paid to Uber or Lift and draw your own conclusions.

Here's my view. I've used uber several times in my area and love it. weather or not the driver gets paid enough is neither here nor there. Frankly, as long as the driver is happy with his job working for uber, I don't give a crap on how much or little he/she gets paid. From what i've heard, Lyft is a little more expensive than uber, and uber seems very accommodating for my needs. All I've got to say to drivers who don't like driving for uber is "it doesn't matter how much you get paid, just be happy theres this kind of service to get us blind/other folks around!" The only real difference between the two is lyft allows you to tip the driver in the app, whereas uber you tip the driver if you wish with cash you have on hand.
Also, let's not get into who supports the current president or not, that's not here nor is it on the focus of this post.

Okay, I'll drop the political rhetoric. I'll acknowledge that both Lift and Uber are viable options for the blind. Both apps seem to be accessible and useful but everyone does have their own preferences. My preference is clearly Lift as I haven't heard the horror stories about them while Uber has had a string of bad press over the last few months, not all politically related. Choose your own rideshare service, but I will remind you to think about your driver...

They are truly appreciated!

Thank you for dropping the politics. I get enough of it on Facebook and twitter, and really don't want or need it here. As long as the company gets the job done, they can support anyone they like, that's why it's America. Both Lyft and Uber are fantastic, it should definitely not be a lyft verses Uber thing. It's a preference, but there are people, like myself who actually, gasp, prefer both.

I love love Uber. I live in Morgantown WV which has terrible public transportation. Uber finally came last year and I love love love it. I have to agree with the comment above. After not having reliable transportation for so long I am just grateful services like Uber exist for I and other blind people. I also don't care about politics or what politics the CEO of Uber supports. I have found the service and Uber app to be great. The two times I had to contact Uber customer support they responded promptly and professionally. I love uber!!

I recently listened to an episode of the Life After Blindness podcast, which I highly recommend where the host Tim Schwartz discusses a recent collaboration between the NFB and Lyft and it sure sounds like Lyft is making an effort to incorporate accessibility and enforce that their drivers comply with accommodating service dogs and are aware of of good practices for transporting visually impaired riders. I have not used Lyft yet, have used Uber a couple of times and had a good experience each time, but I will use Lyft for my next ride based on what I'm hearing recently. Below is the link for the Life After Blindness episode for anyone interested
http://lifeafterblindness.com/labcast-6-latest-news-microsoft-lyft-samsung-easy-accommodations-blind-parents-parental-controls-iphone/u

Both Lyft and Uber are available in my area, and I honestly use both. Lyft seems to be slightly more expensive in my area, but this differs from city to city. For example, when I was in Dallas for a convention, upon looking at the fares for both services, Lyft was less expensive there.

The pros of Lyft are as follows: you can tip the Lyft driver in the app,, and you can add a stop to your route. For example, what if you want to pick up a pizza on the way to a friend's house? You can put that stop into Lyft, and the driver has the entire route without you having to change the destination at your first stop to get to the second.

That said, in my area often Uber has less of a wait time. So quite honestly, I play the game of open both apps and if I have time constraints I pick whichever is closer.

I've not had a problem with either service, and when I have had minor navigation issues that resulted in higher fares, the issues have been resolved promptly.

I recommend trying both services and seeing what one fits your needs. Or, if you're like me, perhaps you use them both dependent on your needs that day.

Mendi is absolutely right! It's the same here in Richmond, VA and Lyft is sometimes a bit more expensive, but the demand might be higher on Uber and we may have to wait longer, so I tend to use both. In fact, talk to enough drivers, and you'll find that a lot of the same guys drive for both services. I can think of only one or two instances where I had a bad experience, and after writing to the support folks, they responded promptly and were really nice about it. I even got a free ride as a result of a driver's screwup. So I really hope people don't look at this as an either or thing. Both services are great. Use them like you would any other accessibility tool, and you can get things done. I love both Uber and Lyft.

I will preface this by saying that I am The accessibility specialist Lyft brought on to help get their app fully voiceover compliant. We've made quite a lot of great advancements in the past year, going from the app being almost totally inaccessible in December 2015 to being placed in apples top of the app store list a few months ago. They are really committed to accessibility and we have put processes in place to make sure that every new feature that comes out is properly tested before heading production so that all users with different disabilities can use it at the get-go.

It comes down to personal preference, but in general, all the drivers I talk to who have worked for multiple ridesharing services are much happier working for Lyft. It does depend on where you are in the country, but here in San Francisco, overall the Lyft passengers and drivers are much more friendly and open. Lyft is much more about the passenger experience and making sure the drivers are well taken care of , both of which are extremely important factors in this service, and it absolutely does not promote the aggressive and most of the time unlawful expansion tactics that Uber has used around the world to spread their service and undercut the competition, usually to the the disservice of the drivers.

The prices between the services will differ depending on where you are in the country. Uber has a terrible company culture, has been in the news because of far reaching sexist issues, are in the process of being sued for stealing Google's autonomous car code, were recently caught installing backdoor software on people's phones to track them along with using Greyball to hide their service from authorities in regions where they had unlawfully spread, had to be directly sued to make sure that drivers excepted guide dogs , and many other shady problems.

Lyft just partnered with the NFB and although we have had a pretty direct guide dog policy before this, we ironed out a much stricter Guide dog policy without having to go to litigation, making sure all drivers are educated and fully understand ADA compliance and are fully blacklisted off of the platform if they deny passengers with guide dogs twice. We definitely try to offer her the best service possible, and there will be individual drivers who can be pretty bad in any ridesharing service, but for the most part Uber has had many more unfortunate incidents with drivers assaulting passengers. Lyft is much more focused on the driver on-boarding experience while Uber is content with just spreading the platform to as many people as they can despite safety issues.

Ultimately, try both apps if they are available in your area and choose which one works best for you. The Lyft app is definitely much more optimized for voiceover usage and works quite a bit faster than Uber, and while we are still quashing bugs, we offer a very straightforward and consistent experience throughout the entire app.

It has been our experience that the Lyft app is more accessible and overall easier to use than Uber, but Lyft's service is slightly more expensive. I have also read in several places that Lyft's lead developer deliberately takes care to insure it is always VoiceOver accessible. Finally, only Lyft tells you the color of the car you should be expecting. Sadly, it is our experience that Uber makes accessibility missteps from time to time and is very slow to correct them.

Hi. I would like to try Lyft and have heard great things about it such as the accessibility is better and such. However, Uber has been in my area since July. Lyft came about two months ago. The problem is every time I open the Lyft app there seems to be no drivers working. Once Lyft expands to a new city/location how long does it take before there are a good amount of drivers? Lyft never seems to have drivers available but with Uber there is always a driver five minutes or less away from me. I am in Morgantown, West Virginia. So I have grown to really love Uber because I've been taking them for so long with no problems.

Woo, go WV! lol! anyway, uber has been in my area for a couple years now, and I've used it for the past few months. I find it works great when there are drivers in my area. It's great when you are in a big city, but when you go out of that city to a sort of rural/acreage area, uber works, but there tends to be less drivers that'll pick you up. Other than that, I love the service and hope it gets better and better! Left has just come to my area, but I don't really think i'll be using it for a long while.

Hi all. First, I've only used Lyft once, having a bad experience. The person charged me for a no show, when I was so visible, Uber found me. I fixed that, I just haven't tried them again. The good thing with Uber is that you can get an estimate of a ride before you click "Request", to my knowledge all you know is if there's someone and how long the E.T.A. will be. If Lyft expanded to give the user an estimate of the ride, that would help, at least in my book. Just so no one thinks I am only Uber, I took one yesterday, the guy was fabulous. Until the idiot lets me out ten feet from a curb on a pretty busy road. If friends hadn't been watching, i'd be road pizza right now. As for the political standpoint, you can believe anything you wish, though I do think we all have a right to our own thoughts. Keep this in mind, you have the haters of every service out there, from cable to cell phones to ride sharing, so have your own experiences, and judge from that, not this forum topic.

Well said, Justin. I've never used either of these. Also how do they compare to taxi fares? And are both uber and Lyft's apps accessible?

Hi. First, both apps are very accessible. Uber, you have a "Where to?" button, you can start typing in a destination, say 126 Glenn drive. As youtype, you can see results at the top, be careful though, not always the first one will be the one you want. So just be sure it says your city and state. Second, after you tap on the destination, you have a back button, followed by selected Uber X, which is usually the cheapest option. Up to four people can ride in this option, if you want a bigger car, you'd use Uber XL. There might be a Uber select, this would be something akin to a limo or lincoln town car, if you say had an anniversary dinner. Each of these options is a button, you can change to fit your needs. once you have what you want, you will hit request Uber X or if it was selected different, request Uber XL. You have a fare estimate, so if I wnated to go somewhere it might say UberX 13.12 and as you slide over the options they are read out. Once you tap request, you are read finding your ride, then the name and vehicle are head along with the license plate number. You're given a push notification to let you know when they are arriving. You can contact them by tapping on the driver's name, where you can text or call he driver if say you're at an apartment and you want to be speciffic where you are. Lyft, is a bit harder to use. I have only used them once, so all I can say for sure, is it acts like Uber, except all you have is a field to make sure you're where you are at, then a confirm pickup. Lyft does say E.T.A. fifteen minutes, and Uber will do this after you type in the destination. Note for Uber nothing happens until you click request. Hope that helps. Sorry I was so heavy explaining Uber but that's the one i use most. Lyft users, give me a hand as I will try them again at some point.

Hi folks... First I wanted to apologize about my first post on this topic. I was a bit hotheaded when I posted it. Best comparison I can give for my kneejerk reaction is waving a red cloth in front of a bull. It raised my hackles, but I feel somewhat vindicated by a later post from the accessibility specialist from Lift who said some of the things I said in my first post but far more eloquently than I ever could. That out of the way, here's my favorite experience with Lift.

It was just after Christmas, 2016 and I was expecting some packages to arrive at my apartment that were sent by my mother. I had spent the Christmas holiday at my best friend's place which is about 4 miles from my place. I didn't want to leave the packages sitting outside my door if it all possible, so I ordered myself a car via the Lift app. Since I live in the burbs just south of Seattle (basically between Boeing Field and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport), a car was no more then about 5 minutes away. I got everything together, said goodbye to my friend as I went outside to catch my Lift.

When I stepped up to the car, the first thing that caught my attention was the driver's accent Michael was his name... First thing he inquired about was my name, just to confirm he had the right passenger. I confirmed my identity and he opened the right rear passenger door so I could climb into the car. After getting in the car (it was a brand new Honda Accord hybrid, but all Lift cars in Seattle seem to be hybrids). As I settled in the back seat, we got to talking. I inquired about his accent, as I had trouble placing it at first... Michael was a honest-to-goodness Frenchman it turned out. Conversation continued, ranging from a little Trump bashing on both our parts, discussion on Lift's recent donation to support immigrant causes and of course, French culture and cuisine. At one point, he offered me some gum or candy which was in a Ziplock bag in a pouch that was on the back of the front passenger's seat. I had a small bit of trouble reaching it thanks to the seat belt I was wearing, but Michael snatched the bag out at a long light and handed to me, whence I snagged some gum and thanked him for his consideration. The candy/gum bag went back in it's pouch and conversation continued until the car was just up the hill from my complex. At that point, I asked Michael if we could stop at the office of my complex so I could check if those packages arrived there instead of my door. He had no issue with that, so once the car got to the office, we stopped there and I got out and went into the office. I was quite pleasantly surprised when as I was ready to exit the office with both packages (they had been delivered to the office, not my door), Michael was there and took charge of the packages so I could easily reenter the car for the rest of the climb up the hill to my apartment (My complex is built on a wide ledge that overlooks the Duamish River but the level were the office is and where my apartment is are different thanks to the topography of the land the complex is on). Once again, Michael surprised me by carrying the packages to my apartment door for me, as I was dealing with my cumbersome overnight bag. I thanked him for his help, unlocked my apartment door and went inside, grabbing the packages just before I closed my apartment door after setting down my overnight bag. Of course, Michael got an extra-large tip via the Lift app (actually I finished the transaction via Lift's Alexa skill, not via the phone as I was needing my hands free). 5 stars for him, and I hope I get a chance to ride with Michael again as that was a great experience.

Sorry for the length of this response, but I hope people got a good idea of what a positive Lift experience is supposed to go like. Of course, everyone has their own preferences, but I do encourage you to give both a try before you pass judgement...

I use Uber mostly since it is a little cheaper but when prices are surging, I'll go to Lyft. I like both services. Uber has made some missteps in accessibility of the app lately though and I wish both services would allow you to put in that you're blind in your profile, that way you won't have to text your driver every time. Drivers are able to put in that they're deaf or hard of hearing in their profile.

I've enjoyed reading this forum. Thanks to all of you for the information especially the accessability things.

Hi @Marconius I've been having this issue for a while now where the app just says arriving soon as the driver's ETA when they are in route, from what I understand it's only happening in certain markets as I've heard others say the same thing. I've contacted Lyft who can't seem to figure this out. They had me uninstall and reinstall and all that. Do you perhaps have any ideas? I would like to continue to use Lyft but if I need to be somewhere and I don't know how far my driver is from me I find that a problem as arriving soon does not tell me anything. Of course I could text the driver but I would like to have the ETA countdown on the app.

Hi. Just wanted to say thanks, to the Lyft person on here. I wasn't trying ot put down Lyft at all, though I admit I had a bit of a sour taste because of the one experience. I know, I shouldn't judge, Irish temper though. ;) anyway, I just used the app to simulate a ride to the place i'm heading to, and wow. You, that is Lyft, are about six dollars cheaper then what Uber charges. for some reason, the few places i used it, the one place is always around thirteen dollars, you guys, same place, nine ot sixteen. Wow. I wil most definitely be trying you. Thanks again.

Hi all. I took a trip Sunday, all was well until the person lets me off in the middle of the road. Thank god there was no trafic coming as cars speed down this street. I hadn't even flipped my cane open before the driver began to pull away. so I reported it, explained, now five bucks in credit and my fare refunded. I also made it clear that this person was perfectly fine, just wanted him to not do this to another person.

Thanks for this post and all its replies, I feel like I've learned a lot. And especially, thanks to Marconius; I'll be giving the Lyft app a try very soon!!

Hi. First, Markonis, sorry if I totally butchered your name, a strange question. I haven't used Lyft yet, but here it is. If my pickup is set, and i haven't added a destination yet, why is the "Request lyft", button still available? I mean is it possible to say get picked up, then enter where you're going? I'm just curious, not judging how the app works. Anyway I did see an article where seniors call a number, request a ride and are driven there. How the payment system works I'm not sure, but I think it was subsidized. I'll try to find it and I'll put it in another comment. Can't wait to use Lyft soon.

This is partnered with both Lyft and Uber in a few cities. http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-lyft-uber-seniors-20160829-snap-story.html

I use Lyft all the time and love it. I can't comment on Uber, but Lyft is very accessible and the drivers I've had have always been friendly and courteous.

I've heard of a service called go go grandparent, where you make a call and they schedule the ride. I don't know anything about it but yeah.

I just read an article that said that Uber had to fire at least 20 employees because of reports of sexual harassment and similar issues. Not good for them. So far as I know, lyft hasn't had to do anything like this, nor have they been under investigation for violating apple app store policies. Now I don't know about you guys, but I don't think I'd want to use a company that's had this happen to them.

I had a reasonable excuse to try a ride for the first time today. I chose Lyft, although I have both apps set up.

The app was totally accessible in terms of me scheduling, confirming, and completing the ride. From start to finish, it was as good as I could hope for.

The ride was great too. The driver was really nice, and accommodated me and my guide dog without any issues.

I don't see me doing this regularly as we have a very affordable shared ride taxi service, but, sometimes things come up that I can't schedule a quick shared ride for, and now I know I can use Luft confidently.

Thanks for all your thoughts. I am strongly considering using one of these services, both are available here in the Chicago area as far as I know. I'm also looking to work with an O&M instructor, and I'd like to get her take on the matter as well. Regarding politics, I don't think it belongs on a site such as AppleVis. That's all I'm saying. Happy riding everyone, and ADA paratransit please train your scheduling people better. But perhaps that's getting into politics somewhat, lol.

I've had great luck with lyft and prefer them. There was a time when i had more problems with Uber and tthe dog and Lyft was definitely better with . At some point I will try Uber again but I do like the Lyft ap much better. It's easier to find things.

I have used both here in Chicago. Uber always has cheaper prices. However, most of their drivers these days are third world immigrants for whom English is a second language and are foreign to American culture. Lyft often has better drivers and I have never needed to explain my obvious needs as a blind person to them. The only bad rideshare experiences I have had have been on Uber. For the person with the questions about the 79 year old mother, it sounds like she does not know how to use VoiceOver. If she learned VoiceOver and iOS, many of the issues you raised would be resolved. For others, she just needs to be at curbside, outdoors and waiting for her driver, calling first to ask to orally identify themselves and jump into the car.