Last time San Francisco's BART employees went on strike, local car rental app seized the opportunity: nothing says solidarity like a private helicopter ride. Today, with more labor rumblings, Uber is offering free boat rides to avoid public transportation.

Now that New York County Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit from the livery cab industry that was holding up the city's pilot program, e-hailing is no longer just the province of the early-adopting elite willing to swallow Uber's hefty fees and surging prices for a little black car convenience.

On demand car service Uber is handy in a pinch (or a lightning storm), but it's pissed off traditional cab drivers. Many are afraid they'll be driven out of a job—or "disrupted," in Valley-speak—but are losing in big markets like DC. Add New York to the non-elite defeat.