Used to happen to me constantly trying to go across the bay bridge in either direction when I lived in Oakland. I didn’t even mind the cancelations so much but the worst was when they would try and hide around the block, close enough to say they’ve “arrived” to try to get me marked as a no show and pocket the fee.

They have a cancellation rate metric on their end that they are trying to avoid.

I have similar problems when I dated someone across the bridge.

They also lose a ton of money leaving SF at prime time / etc.