By: Lyle Mark Bulado
New York City taxis are coming to dethrone Uber and Lyft from e-hailing dominance.
Cabs hailed through Curb, a mobile app hailing cabs and paying fares, saw a whopping 152% increase between April and July 2021 in NYC, and monthly average downloads off the app are up 70% this year compared to 2018.
As Uber and Lyft fares surge, NYC taxis are becoming popular again.
The number of people booking taxis through the app is growing at a faster rate than those booking Ubers and Lyfts, according to data from Superfly Insights. Curb roughly doubled its user numbers between the first and second quarters of 2021, while Uber and Lyft only increased by about one-third.
Curb's recent popularity could stem from surging prices for Uber and Lyft. The average ride price for an Uber or Lyft increased to $27 from $22 between January to June of this year, according to data from Superfly.
Curb, meanwhile, has seen average ride prices between January and June drop to $13.63 in 2021 from $16.46 in 2020 and $16.89 in 2019. Unlike the apps, NYC taxis are beholden to a meter, which charges $2.50 plus 50 cents per half mile - and doesn't have any fancy algorithms to increase the price according to demand.
Learn more about Curb at gocurb.com