BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Many hockey writers and tourists are raving about the great job Buffalo did hosting the NHL Draft last Friday and Saturday. However, one key complaint has surfaced on social media, and it involves something we don't have that most other cities do: Uber and Lyft. They are the ridesharing services that our state legislators were not able to reach a deal on to bring to Buffalo and other upstate cities.
"Even Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is a smaller destination than Buffalo, they actually have a rideshare program," says Patrick Kaler with Visit Buffalo Niagara.
Kaler has been working for the past year to bring ridesharing to Western New York. After he saw the complaints on social media over the weekend that we don't have it here, he posted his own tweet calling on people to contact their legislators.
Kaler says visitors are used to using ridesharing, and it's kind of expected.
"They come to Buffalo, they pull up the app and they're disappointed that there aren't cars available and so it's just something that now especially through social media, these things are going viral, and people are picking up on it, and saying well what's going on in Buffalo," says Kaler.
Hockey writers picked up on it. Joe Smith, the Tampa Bay Lightning beat writer for the Tampa Bay Times, tweeted "props to the city of Buffalo for a great job hosting the NHL Draft. Well done. Now all you need is Uber or Lyft."
And there was this tweet from Isabelle Khurshudyan, the Washington Capitals beat reporter for the Washington Post: "Hello again Buffalo... you land without Uber or Lyft."
“Buffalo definitely sticks out in my mind as when I go there, I have to get a rental car because it's just so inconvenient," said Khurshudyan when we spoke with her on the phone Monday night.
Khurshudyan rented a car for the draft knowing she has had situations in Buffalo before where it's taken 20 to 30 minutes for a cab to arrive. She also ended up driving most of her colleagues around this weekend because she says it was really difficult for them to get cabs.
"One guy was joking that he tried to, he went on the Uber app and tried to call one, and the Uber app comes up, and it's like make this a wish. He was like what do you mean? I wish that a car would come pick me up, right now. So yeah, they were definitely surprised, and especially for the Western beat writers, who, you know, only go to Buffalo like once a year," said Khurshudyan.
Bill Yuhnke is the President of Liberty & Yellow Cab, the biggest cab company in Western New York. He says he had his full fleet of more than four-hundred cars out from Thursday on.
"Absolutely zero complaints. You know, I think the Buffalo Visitors Bureau could do a better job. They could have promoted the fact that maybe they had to use a telephone or even our app," said Yuhnke.
Yuhnke says he thinks the problem could be solved by putting more than six taxi stands in front of the arena and taxi stands in front of every hotel downtown. He says that would help with visibility.