periodically open the app every few minutes or so. once the driver is 5 minutes away -- go outside and wait.

it's a tradeoff. eliminating notification spam means behaving more synchronously when booking a taxi. i don't mind waiting outside for five minutes. especially if i'm not getting a random ping when i'm definitely not booking a taxi :shrugs:

I prefer temporarily toggling notifications on because I really don’t trust my internal metronome.

You could set a short timer on your phone. On an iphone, its two clicks away.

Enabling notifications is not difficult. And the driver could arrive before or after the initial estimate.