When Uber Doesn't Work: New Ways to Get a Ride

Three alternatives to getting around town without using the transportation app.

Ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft are becoming more versatile, offering corporate travel and carpooling, for example. But other transportation services may suit your needs better.

Getting to the airport. More U.S. airports are allowing on-demand ride services to pick up and drop off passengers. But why risk a long wait at off-peak times? Wingz is an app that lets you preschedule rides to or from 15 airports, including Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles International.

Shuttling kids to school. It’s illegal for minors younger than 18 to ride Uber or Lyft by themselves. Services such as HopSkipDrive, Shuddle and others cater to younger riders with prescheduled pickups by prescreened drivers. Rates start at $15 to $20 per trip.

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Riding in a real cab. If you prefer a regular taxi that doesn’t impose surge pricing and is driven by a professional driver, order and pay for one with apps such as Arro, Curb and Flywheel, which now operate in cities including Boston, Chicago, New York and Seattle.

Miriam Cross
Associate Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Miriam lived in Toronto, Canada, before joining Kiplinger's Personal Finance in November 2012. Prior to that, she freelanced as a fact-checker for several Canadian publications, including Reader's Digest Canada, Style at Home and Air Canada's enRoute. She received a BA from the University of Toronto with a major in English literature and completed a certificate in Magazine and Web Publishing at Ryerson University.