The market always wins.
For years, state and local governments have imposed hundreds of pages of regulations on cab companies. Cab companies often are made to get a “certificate of need” from the government before starting up. Cab companies must get government approval for all their rates, fares, routes and operating areas.
In some places, government-approved cab companies must constantly appear before government “taxi boards” composed of members of entrenched cab companies.
The regs ensure that poor people and people not approved by good-ol-boy establishments are kept out of the industry.
But a few years ago, enterprises such as Uber and Lyft began launching app-based “ride-sharing” businesses allowing common citizens to transport passengers who contact them by cell phone or I-phone apps.
Now, more riders in NYC are using Uber than the entrenched, government-approved taxi companies. See here.
