The number of places where you can reliably walk out onto the street and hail a taxi is pretty small. Everywhere else, the relevant decision is whether calling a dispatcher or using a taxi company's app is faster/cheaper/more reliable than Uber/Lyft.
Here in Barcelona it works like that. 2-3 free taxis pass my place per minute or so. Just wave and you've got one. They're also very cheap.
But yeah the movie thing is not at all unrealistic here. Though at night I usually wave the torch on my phone to attract attention because they don't always see a raised hand.
Here in Barcelona it's great, I really never have to call one. It's always faster just waiting.
At the busiest time it's a bit harder but at that time the ride-sharing services are also overloaded so it's still faster to just wait for a green light (free taxi). We don't get Uber as far as I know but we do have a similar thing called Cabify. But it's useless if you need something quick and they've put the prices up too much. I now only use them for scheduled stuff like airport dropoffs.
I think the cab companies here have apps. I don't know how good they are, though I've been meaning to find out.
There's no way I want to ever wait on hold for a dispatcher again, or be mystified as to when my cab is arriving (this always seems to involve standing outside in the snow or pouring rain).
If the cab companies have apps comparable to Uber and Lyft, sure, I'll give them a shot.
