

The Struggles of New York City’s Taxi King - MaxQuentero
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-taxi-medallion-king/

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loso
"Seven years later came Bloomberg’s introduction of green cabs designed
primarily to reach the underserved outer boroughs. Prohibited from picking up
customers in Manhattan’s central business district, they were nonetheless
despised by the yellow cab industry. Freidman sued, contending the new law
allowing green cabs was unconstitutional. The courts ultimately disagreed."

This right here is why I hope Uber and other services like them burn the NYC
cab industry to the ground. The cab industry in NY treats people like crap if
you don't live in midtown. Especially if you live in a minority community. I
lived in Harlem when that fight was happening and was astounded by the
argument the cab commission put up. They admitted they don't go to minority
communities because of violence but they do not want anyone else to service
the area either.

My ex was riding home with two white coworkers from her job. They were getting
dropped off in the 60's block and she was getting dropped off in Harlem. The
cab driver knew that. He dropped off the first two and drove a block up and
old my ex to get out of the car. He wasn't driving to Harlem. That is just one
of several messed up NYC cab stories. I just stopped taking them and went
green car only.

The cab industry is crappy to a lot of the community in NYC. They deserve
everything that they are getting right now.

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shadeless
Planet Money had an interesting episode about him recently:
[http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/31/428157211/episo...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/31/428157211/episode-643-the-
taxi-king)

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refurb
_During the Depression, thousands of jobless men became taxi drivers. As a
result, the number of cabs ballooned, and suddenly there weren’t enough
passengers to scoop up. The industry became as hopelessly unprofitable as any
other._

Is that really true? If so, what makes the cab business so different than
every other business where limits aren't put on the number of sellers?

If there were too many cabs and it became unprofitable, then you'd expect the
supply to dwindle until it was profitable for some.

The whole safety thing is a different regulatory issue. I could understand
trying to keep passengers safe.

~~~
rhino369
Cabs are a vital part of NYC transportation. Too many cabs will clog up
streets causing traffic.

There are other reasons to regulate. To prevent predatory pricing. Without set
prices cab drivers would start ripping people off. You can see the trouble
with this with Uber's surge pricing. I needed a cab home from the airport but
Uber wanted 4X pricing. Luckly cabs still exist, but in 5 years they might
not. My 80 buck fare would be 320 bucks.

A lot of pro uber folks want to pretend that taxi regulations are purely
protectionist. But it's really just quid pro quo. You can't tell cab drivers
what to charge and make them drive people to anywhere in the city. They might
not be profitable. Limiting supply is consultation price.

Well now that deal is done since cities allow Uber to compete with them
unregulated.

I think the only real solution is to deregulate cabs. But a lot of people are
going to be pissed when their cabbie informs them of surge pricing or that he
doesn't deliver to certain areas.

~~~
refurb
I see your point but Uber is unregulated and it seems to be working fine. I'm
not sure that cabs stick out as an industry that particularly needs this level
of regulation.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> I see your point but Uber is unregulated and it seems to be working fine.

They violate transportation laws flagrantly in most jurisdictions. That's not
"unregulated", that's breaking the law.

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sandworm101
I have no sympathy whatsoever. He still owes on loans taken to purchase
medallions. If things get a little worse this lowlife is surely going to walk
away from those loans. If I were uber I'd offer to buy them for the pennies
they may soon be worth.

>>After breakfast, Freidman walks two blocks east to his temporary digs at
Trump Park Avenue on 59th Street. (Sandra is occupying the $4.8 million master
residence six blocks north.) After he retrieves a Chihuahua named Harry from
upstairs—he signs his e-mails “Yes I Am a Dog Lover” or “adopt-a-pet.com”—the
plan is to hop into his Ferrari and zip over to one of his several garages in
Queens. Not that he wants that written: “Honestly, I would love the piece not
to be about ‘We had breakfast at Cipriani, then we walked over to his Park
Avenue apartment, then we got into his Ferrari.’

This pic says more than the article ever could:
[http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-taxi-medallion-
king/i...](http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-taxi-medallion-
king/img/feat_taxi36__05.jpg)

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rayiner
Rant: Uber's shitty navigation is as we speak taking me on a detour through
south DC trying to get from foggy bottom to union station. Second time this
week (last time it was a random detour to Virginia).

I use Uber all the time, of course, because it's so cheap, but people talking
about self-driving Uber cars always makes me chuckle.

~~~
rhino369
Uber routes me through an alley for absolutely no reason every time I take it
to work.

~~~
rayiner
I love how the only option to get your route reviewed is "my driver took a
poor route." There should be a "your navigation is inbred" option.

~~~
fennecfoxen
I see this regularly, it's pretty insane: if I do uberPool, my route home
typically involves an illegal (but safe) right turn into a do-not-enter /
buses-only street followed by an illegal left turn the wrong way up a one-way
street.

I also tried it once when I actually got matched to another fare (a first) -
the route was going to take us within ~3 blocks of my home but then go 20
minutes further to drop off the other fare and then 20 minutes back on the
same route. (I got out when the car was stopped at a red light and walked).

AND YET FOR SOME STRANGE REASON I STILL FIND UBER INFINITELY SUPERIOR TO
TAXICABS. FUNNY THAT.

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kleer001
Certainly a good object lesson in the bite of leverage over long periods of
time. As in it's a very bad idea.

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rhino369
If cities are going to allow open competition from uber and lyft, they need to
remove the regulation on cab drivers.

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stblack
Burn baby burn.

Seriously.

If there's a paragon of entitlement, this guy is it.

