For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
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Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
#2I don't know what to say. These people made a bet that the future would look like the past. They were wrong, and it's costing them significantly.
Yet... what are we supposed to do about it?
Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
#3"So many people wanted one that they were hard to get. Drivers used to sit on a waiting list for more than 10 years. When their names finally came up, the city charged them $250,000 to buy one."
This is the source of the problem.
Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
#4This isn't unique to San Francisco, the entire industry is in a free fall nationwide... It is incredible to watch the effects of a little innovation and (effectively) deregulation.
Chicaco: "Once a sure bet, taxi medallions becoming unsellable" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9564478 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/17/taxi-medallion...
New York: "New York City Taxi Medallion Prices Keep Falling" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856231 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/upshot/new-york-city-taxi-...
Philadelphia: "Philly medallions fetch less than 17% of asking price" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9528301 http://observer.com/2015/05/the-taxi-industry-is-in-total-co...
Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
#5I don't know what to say. These people made a bet that the future would look like the past. They were wrong, and it's costing them significantly. Yet... what are we supposed to do about it?
Local governments could pay money to buy them back? It does seem unfair to charge such high amounts of money for something now worthless.
Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
#6I don't know what to say. These people made a bet that the future would look like the past. They were wrong, and it's costing them significantly. Yet... what are we supposed to do about it?
If the medallion is the only way you can be a taxi, then enforce it. If Lyft and Uber are legitimate, then lose the medallion and pay this guy back his $250K.
Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
#7Here's the thing I don't understand -- if the main attraction (from a customer point of view) is the app (with everything that comes with it), why haven't the cab companies got in on the same game? Either put out their own app to hail rides (and maybe give their cabs a more luxury look to them), or sign up as Uber/Lyft drivers themselves? Or is there something I'm missing?
Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
#8Here's the thing I don't understand -- if the main attraction (from a customer point of view) is the app (with everything that comes with it), why haven't the cab companies got in on the same game? Either put out their own app to hail rides (and maybe give their cabs a more luxury look to them), or sign up as Uber/Lyft drivers themselves? Or is there something I'm missing?
They have: https://gocurb.com
They've been doing it for a while -- this app used to be Taxi Magic. It's slower to respond than Uber, and more expensive.
Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
#9This is an especially poignant story, and it's hard to not feel bad for this driver.
On the other hand, people face investment risk all the time, i.e. when franchising a restaurant. When Chipotle or whoever comes in and devours the fast food market, I wonder if the local struggling burger franchisee asks the city for help?
I can't speak on behalf of other cities, but anyone who has lived in SF pre-Uber has no shortage of nightmare stories from taking cabs. For people who had to wait years and pay enormous costs for their medallions, many taxi drivers acted smug, entitled, rude, and sometimes even downright shady. I know you can't say this about _every_ taxi driver, but there's no doubt that the current ecosystem treats the consumer many orders of magnitude better.
Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden
#10I don't know what to say. These people made a bet that the future would look like the past. They were wrong, and it's costing them significantly. Yet... what are we supposed to do about it?
Local governments could pay money to buy them back? It does seem unfair to charge such high amounts of money for something now worthless.
By that logic apple needs to give me back my $600 for my iPhone3GS
He made a bet that value would stay
He was wrong
Sucks
Sad? sure. But not anyone's fault