Can't catch an Uber

Last Thursday March 17th as part of an "environmental contingency plan" (ie there were too many pollutants in the air), Mex City's government decreed certain cars could not be used that say (actually they could not be driven on the city's streets; as far as I know, I could have had mine running in the parking garage all day!) Among these was mine.

I tried to get a cab, but the taxi bases nearby couldn't promise one in under an hour, and that when I didn't get a busy signal or the call plain couldn't make a connection. So I used the Uber app to flag one. The problem was there were none available.

So I alternated between the app and the land line phone. When the app showed a car available, it took so long to complete the set up, not aided by how slowly it crawls on my prehistoric fossil of an iphone 4, I got a notice saying none were available by the time I finished.

Here's the problem:

1) I was told surge pricing was at 1.5 (this seemed low to me given the increased demand), and do I accept?
2) After tapping "yes" I got prompted to input "1.5" to confirm.
3) After all this, i was asked to choose between a regular ride or Uber pool.
4) Finally I could summon a car.
5) No cars are available.

Later I found Uber would normally set the surge pricing to a much higher value, but drew it back to 1.5 because of complaints. Since Uber cars also faced restrictions, there was a deficit of around 20% (1/5th).

Eventually a cab got to my apartment building (in 40 minutes rather than one hour) and I made it to the office.

On the way back home, I did manage to flag an Uber, but that's another story.