Taxis were terrible before ride sharing came along and ride sharing has made them better - the Taxis have made significant efforts to improve now that they don't have a monopoly. But they haven't improved enough - Taxis are definitely worse than Uber in my city.

I think rideshare services have a bad reputation because they made some mistakes when they were starting out, and even now when they start in a new city and every single driver has zero experience so there will still be mistakes... but in general, now that ridesharing is well established, they are the best available service (at least in my city anyway - which is in Australia).

Yes, there's still the occasional awful experience. "The best available" doesn't mean "good enough".

I avoid taxis more than uber because I tend to get poorer treatment from taxis for some reason. Other people I know find it's the other way around. The difference isn't hugely significant, probably.

Taxis and rideshares, at least here, are both private businesses with drivers governed by the company's rules. I'd like to see them both held to the same standard, and I would like the companies themselves to be not-so-gently encouraged to improve their systems to minimise these situations. They can now, they just choose not to prioritise it because there are no associated risks with doing so.