Taxi

aka Taxi Cab

(notes are pre-Uber)

in NYC, 91 percent of the city's cab drivers are immigrants, almost a third of which own their vehicle, essentially making them Entrepreneur-s.

I was intrigued by the system in Winnipeg (when I was there for a few days in 1981)

• no real market in street pickups

• but you could call a service, and a car would be there in 5 minutes

how I think taxi Market should work

• eliminate the medallion system, stop creating Scarcity - potentially infinite supply!

• local govt defines a rate structure

• cabs can have different rates, but must plug into that structure, and rates must be posted on outside of taxi

• (maybe) local govt defines some minimal level/structure of insurance that driver must carry, and that certificate must be posted in cab. That replaces lots of supposed Quality Assurance infrastructure at the TLC.

  • Reputation Management market

JWZ rant http://www.jwz.org/blog/2012/06/taken-for-a-ride-the-taxi-medallion-system-in-new-york-and-other-cities-raises-fares-impoverishes-drivers-and-hurts-passengers-so-why-cant-we-get-rid-of-it/