I still don't understand why taxis need a medallion from the city to operate, but Uber and Lyft drivers don't. The quote from Judge Posner at the end of the article is totally inane, and has to be out of context.
Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
51–60 of 270 posts
Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Whether it's for the better or worse simply doesn't matter Yikes- I have only a little sympathy for the taxi industry, but it is very scary that you do not believe we should be concerned with whether market forces improve society or not. I think it is extremely important to the vast majority of people that any enormous change in transportation occurs for the benefit of society - the ideology that capitalism is an en…
We'll see what you think of the cab industry when uber raises their prices by 3 times in order to become profitable, after the cabbies all gone.
I live in Chicago; I rarely use Uber. Mostly Lyft. Works just as well and less embroiled in ethical faux pas.
Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
#53Good, it's about time we let some crappy things die. Bailing out the banks and GM got me furious many years ago. Imagine if the government stepped in and saved Altavisa / Pets.com, and all the other dot-com boom companies? What good would that have done? Nothing. Let 'em burn and innovation will rise from the ashes.
+ 10000, the taxi system in chicago was _SO_BAD_ Can remember one case where I got a 5am ride to the airport. I suspect the guy was driving a friends cab, as his face did not match the registration. He blew through all stop signs we came across. There were no working seatbelts in the cab. I was literally afraid for my life. Oh and of course his credit card machine was broke, and he had no change, so I have to pay wit…
In that situation, shouldn't you underpay but leave your name and address, suggesting he take it up with the council/police? Do local/federal laws permit that?
I know what it's like though: I arrived late in to Spain once, I got ripped off as it should have been a fixed fare (I had lived in the city!), but it was late and night and was too tired to argue in Spanish.
Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
#54I'm left wondering... so what? The "personal transportation" market has massively changed. Whether it's for the better or worse simply doesn't matter . Veteran Chicago cabbie John Aikins,67, who is facing foreclosure on two medallions for which he owes more than $330,0000, said he has little hope that the industry can be saved. "It feels like the city is just watching us collapse," Aikins said. "Right now, there are…
Second thought: The medallions give "the exclusive right to pick up passengers who hail them on the street". But that's just happening as much. But even "the elderly" are likely not going outside (in Chicago) and sticking their hand out. They're being dispatched, where you wouldn't need a medallion in the first place (right?).
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Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
#55I still don't understand why taxis need a medallion from the city to operate, but Uber and Lyft drivers don't. The quote from Judge Posner at the end of the article is totally inane, and has to be out of context.
according to the article the medallion allows you to roam the street and look for someone to hail you. Uber and Lyft were ruled by the court to be more like arranged rides (limo service). It likely makes sense if you consider the original purpose of the medallion. I think (need to check again) that it was not to create monopolies but to reduce the danger that ramped up in the early days with unlimited numbers of cabs roaming the streets, zooming and cutting each other off to get a fare. If you call for a ride that public safety concern is gone
Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
#56I used to live in Chicago. The city taxi service was horrible--the drivers were grumpy and sketchy. They would always try to take the expensive way around. I hated the taxi service so much that to get around the airport restrictions I would ride the train out to the first stop so I could order an Uber ride.
I lived in Chicago for most of my life until somewhat recently.
Things I observed during that time: - A driver stating, seemingly out of nowhere to my friend and I, "we should just take all of the gays out back and shoot them"
- Multiple times scheduling a morning pickup for a flight, not having it arrive, and being told by the uncaring operator the alternative was to wait so long I'd miss my flight, or gamble with trying to find a free cab during rush hour on Belmont (a losing proposition)
- Too many counts to list of the CC machine "being broken" to try to force me to pay cash, including being intimidated at one point to stop at an ATM to get cash to pay
- Having a driver show me the gun he kept under his seat for "driving through the South Side"
- The joy of not being able to ever get a cab during busy events in extreme weather of all types because there was no way to reserve the ride
- Various smells, ripped seats, miscellaneous fluids in the floor mats, leftover food/alcohol/condom, etc.
- A cab driver who picked me up at my home to go to the airport who then kicked me out part way there because I was on the phone with my mother and he refused to turn down his radio when I requested (which is in the friggin 'Passenger's Bill of Rights' posted in the back of the cab). He then loudly threatened me with physical violence once I exited the vehicle. I ended up asking the cab company to not fire him once I complained because I was so scared that he was unhinged, and the last thing I wanted was an unemployed, unhinged angry guy knowing where my wife and I lived
Good riddance. Uber has its own issues, but they have proven what the market wants. And it sure as hell isn't the current cab system Chicago has.
Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a taxi your ride was insured if the driver got in an accident. Your cabbie is certified, and less likely to be crazy. Also half your lyft/uber ride is paid by a VC.
I think the VC money and lack of regulations is a huge issue. What people don't realize is that once the taxi companies are dead, the ride sharing apps will be able to raise prices and lower quality. Not to mention the issues already seen with Uber and Lyft, whether at a corporate level or on a driver/passenger level.
And cities are free to regulate the ride sharing operators or reduce taxi medallion and tax costs to let them come back. The government fees/licensing restrictions are the only significant barrier to entry in the industry. Fix those and Uber/Lyft have competition in days.
Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
#58I probably won't ever take a taxi again, but have some sympathy for the cab drivers who put their life savings in medallions. The city effectively promised them the exclusive right to give taxi rides, but didn't do anything about a non-medallion entity doing that same thing. They put hundreds of thousands of dollars into something meaningless.
Do you also feel bad for the slumlord who spends a million dollars on a property that eventually gets condemned because he didn't take care of it? Had taxi company owners not used those medallions as an excuse to provide absolutely horrendous customer service, they wouldn't have ever had to worry about uber/lyft/whatever in the first place. I've never taken uber or lyft because it's cheaper, I've taken it because I g…
Well, besides completely strip their incentive to innovate or otherwise provide more than a marginally useful service...
Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
#59Good, it's about time we let some crappy things die. Bailing out the banks and GM got me furious many years ago. Imagine if the government stepped in and saved Altavisa / Pets.com, and all the other dot-com boom companies? What good would that have done? Nothing. Let 'em burn and innovation will rise from the ashes.
"Let'em burn" with respect to "the banks" has been researched and cited as exacerbating the great depression[1].
I know there are folks legitimately concerned with moral hazard, and genuinely believe letting it all burn down would have been the better approach. I'm just glad they weren't in charge when everything went into a tail spin. I think it would have been a LOT worse for everyone.
The Automaker bailout, in hindsight, seems like it was the better call than letting them fail. If they had failed, the surviving ones would have acquired all the valuable scrap on a fire-sale, expanded to fill the void and you'd probably have more or less the same auto industry today. But in the interim, a lot of people would have lost their jobs. So that's a LOT worse for some, and I honestly can't tell who wins but on aggregate I assume it's a wash.
1 - https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great_depressio...
Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse
#60How are they making so much less money than Uber? Simply by paying drivers more? Because if they don't have things like booking, pre-paying via apps etc then of course they are losing business - but in that case why don't they? I don't use Uber over taxis simply because I can get the exact same service from a taxi, but the drivers are better off in terms of pay and schedule (as far as I know).
I do not know about you but I have very low requirement: I just want that when I take my wife on a date to use transportation which does not smell bad and it is not dirty. Nothing else. So I have to chose Lyft or Uber.