Am I the only person that thinks government regulation is a reasonable thing for the taxi industry? Regulations on work hours, car safety, tougher environmental standards, driver training, requiring pickup if called, etc all seem reasonable.I agree.
The medallion system is a disaster. In fact, it's systemized government corruption. Most of these medallion-owning assholes have never driven a taxi in their lives. They're just rent-seeking vampires.
The purpose of limiting the supply of drivers is to prevent a race to the bottom-- and I would generally support that, for a variety of reasons. But the effect of the medallion system is that drivers do no better under the system than without it, because they have to pay enormous leasing fees.
A fully unregulated system is a bad idea (it means you're screwed if you live in the outer boroughs, it will encourage unsafe conditions and driving) but the medallion system needs to be shut down.
I do think things like Uber and Airbnb are very cool and innovative
Uber is an evil company. It's not surge pricing alone that makes it evil. It's the complete lack of transparency around surge pricing, and the fact that (unlike Lyft) it increases its own take when surge is in effect. It's one thing for prices to go up when the supply of cars can't mean demand. It's an entirely different situation when the (a) pricing algorithm is opaque and (b) it's determined unilaterally by a company with every incentive to manipulate it.
I am glad to see the medallion parasites under threat, though. If I were mayor of any of these cities, my first move would be to scrap the medallion system, with no compensation to their owners.