Before the smartphone era, the only possible way to ensure availability of personal transportation was to have a functioning taxi & livery industry. The use of medallions was actually to protect the public, ensuring all drivers were at least accountable and traceable and thus somewhat safe, just like today's Uber riders expect the company to perform background checks on drivers. Yes it benefitted embedded interests, but eliminating medallions would have been worse.
Also, tacking on taxes to hotel bills hurts them, by making visits more expensive and thus reducing demand.
If "protecting the public" was truly the goal, why not make taxi driving as simple as getting a commercial endorsement on your license? Driving 50 people in a public bus only requires X hours in a classroom and an extra exam (or two, depending). Interestingly, the medallions were affixed the the vehicle (thus allowing anybody to use it), the total number of medallions were artificially limited and the choice parts of the city were off limits to competition. Does that really protect the public or does it just protect those who own the medallions?
You should look at the history of why taxi regulation came about and why the "right" number of taxi badges per city was a system that much of the world arrived at. It also brought minimum service obligations, driver standards and fair pricing.
Deregulated taxis had cartels, increased and varying prices depending on destination and poorer customer service. Bad enough that many countries and cities found they had to regulate.
Now, whether medallions that are separate from vehicle and driver, and thus have a value in their own right are the best way to regulate is another question entirely. In the US specific case it seems emphatically not. Quite why many US cities had such poor taxi service when other countries have managed much better is beyond me.
If you want to argue with the phrase "protect the public," that's fine. The point is that, pre-smartphones, the medallion system ensures a functioning system, a modicum of safety, no fare surprises. It was not intended to produce the _lowest possible fares_ for riders.
>The public hasn’t fared much better. Deep-pocketed medallion owners have hijacked public policy through lobbying and legal challenges. Just last week medallion owners won a legal victory blocking Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to create a fleet of “green cabs” to serve New York’s outer boroughs, and last year medallion owners successfully stymied New York’s attempt to shift to hybrid taxis.
Just one example in the article of the great protection medallions offered.
This is like the shoe shine boy giving stock tips in 1929, or the stripper with 6 houses in 2008 -- it represents the exact moment of "peak taxicab." Every major point in the story is now invalidated:
Taxi emissions have been reduced dramatically:
"The scientists report that overall fuel efficiency of the medallion taxi fleet climbed from 15.7 to 33.1 mpg, and corresponding estimates of nitric oxide (NO) and total particulate (PMT) exhaust emissions declined by 82% and 49%, respectively."
https://www.greencarcongress.com/2019/05/20190530-taxis.html
Nobody claims the medallion system was perfect, or that owners did not attempt to exploit their value. But it did provide a functioning cab network that was safe and predictable for decades. And despite holdign a lot of power, medallion owners are not immune from government regulations and competition aided by technology.
> But it did provide a functioning cab network that was safe and predictable for decades.
I don't even know what world you're describing right now. With issues like "the credit card machine is down" to a cab never showing up despite how many calls I made.. the last word I'd ever use to describe cabs is "predictable." Even today, post-Uber.
Taxis have hacked meters forever, take longer routes, and 'forget to turn on the meter' or the 'meter is broken' even today. There's a reason taxis have a fixed fare to manhattan from the airport.
Also, tacking on taxes to hotel bills hurts them, by making visits more expensive and thus reducing demand.
But really nice hot takes.