Tech

Taxi e-hail apps a hit with riders

Yellow taxi e-hails are really clicking with the public.

Over 5,300 passengers a day on average now hail a cab using a mobile app — more than double the daily average of 2,627 riders at the end of last year, according to Taxi and Limousine Commission data.

More than half of all trips were from trendy Brooklyn neighborhoods north of Prospect Park, like Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill — up from 45 percent of trips in the data released in December.

Passengers in Astoria, Harlem, and Brooklyn neighborhoods close to Manhattan had an easier time scoring a cab than other neighborhoods, the data also revealed.

Almost 40 percent of e-hails on average are successful, compared with 29 percent in the December report.

Karli Montague, 21, of Bushwick said she likes to use an e-hail app because it’s hard to street hail a cab outside of Manhattan.

“I like Uber. I live in Brooklyn, so it’s a lot harder to just hail a cab,” she said. “It’s super-convenient.”

In Manhattan, e-hailed trips below 110th Street dipped from 35 percent to 24.4 percent. Many riders passengers who used their smartphones said they biked or took the subway if they couldn’t hail a cab, the report added. Only 13 percent said they would have used a car service.

E-hail drivers got in fewer crashes than drivers who didn’t use the app.

Only 2.7 percent of hacks who use e-hail crashed between June last year and February this year, while 6.2 percent of drivers who didn’t use the apps were in accidents.

Tech-friendly hacks may be less distracted without having to hunt as often for fares, and don’t have to make cash transactions, officials said.

The TLC voted Thursday to extend the program another year. The pilot program began last April, and Uber was the first program approved by the city.

Joshua Juneau, 24, of Hell’s Kitchen, said it’s usually faster for him to hail a cab the old-fashioned way — but prefers to use Uber if he has time to wait for a car.

“You’re just getting in a blind car and hoping you get there,” he said.

“With Uber, you’re selecting your driver and rating him, and they know coming to pick you up that you’re a good customer. You rate each other.”

Melissa Gaccione, 23, of Hoboken, said she likes that it’s easy to use credit cards with e-hails and uses an e-hail app between one and four times a week.

“You don’t have to worry if you have cash,” she said. “The black livery cars never take cards.”