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Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

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Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#141

Post by tmh79 »

nserrino wrote: post #25

I 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.

I agree, but that scenario rarely plays out. In reality, taxi medallions were leveraged financial products often owned by banks, hedge funds, PE firms etc. I do not feel sorry for the generally wealthy medallion investors, they made a bet and they lost.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#143

Post by gehwartzen »

basseq wrote: post #3

I'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…

How did Uber get around not having to buy medallions for their drivers? What prevented someone from operating a for profit ride program even before Uber without a medallion?

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#144

Post by stbtrax »

tmh79 wrote: post #141
nserrino wrote: post #25

I 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.

I agree, but that scenario rarely plays out. In reality, taxi medallions were leveraged financial products often owned by banks, hedge funds, PE firms etc. I do not feel sorry for the generally wealthy medallion investors, they made a bet and they lost.

I don't know what the percentage is but from personal experience there were a lot of South asian immigrants in chicago that drove and saved up to buy medallions.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#145

Post by gehwartzen »

rayiner wrote: post #121
acchow wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it is extremely important to the vast majority of people that any enormous change in transportation occurs for the benefit of society There's a lot of people who would disagree with you. They are called libertarians. What matters first and foremost is freedom - individual freedoms should not be overridden for the sake of improving society.

Libertarians (at least, ones that aren't the anarchist kind) don't believe in freedom. They believe in property rights, which are by definition an encumberance on freedom. (The difference between mere possession and a property right is that the latter is enforced through the government's monopoly on violence.)

This is the argument I usually get into with my more libertarian friends who think property rights and individual freedoms don't impose limits on one another. What happens when someone buys the land all around your house and prevents you from even getting to or leaving your property?

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#146

Post by clock_tower »

weberc2 wrote: post #136
furioussloth wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same applies for Lyft. The rides are cheap because of VC money. It is a good thing to have competition to keep the prices in check.

The original comment referred to price gouging due to lack of competition. VC money might subsidize the rides (or more likely find ongoing development?), but Uber and Lyft are bound to be cheaper than taxis for as long as they can remain less entangled with governments (less artificial price inflation).

The problem is that Uber loses money on every ride, so they'll have to raise their rates as soon as they stop being subsidized by VCs -- unless they have self-driving taxis by then.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#147

Post by clock_tower »

gehwartzen wrote: post #143
basseq wrote: post #3

I'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…

How did Uber get around not having to buy medallions for their drivers? What prevented someone from operating a for profit ride program even before Uber without a medallion?

Uber broke the taxi laws and dared regulators to stop them -- and they mostly won that dare. (Remember all that talk about disruption?)

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#148

Post by sundaeofshock »

tw04 wrote: post #96
bitJericho wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VCs wont pay for rides forever.

VCs are just paying for rides until self-driving cars get to the point that drivers are no longer needed. I'm not concerned with the price of rides increasing, I'm concerned with the unemployment our country is going to get punched in the face with. Between cab drivers and OTR (truckers), we're going to have a MUCH bigger problem on our hands than we've seen since Detroit collapsed (which was arguably less of an issu…

VCs are needed until a self-driving car can pick an elderly passenger at the airport and help them with their baggage when they get home.

Uber will run out of money long before we have self-driving cars.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#149

Post by gehwartzen »

clock_tower wrote: post #147
gehwartzen wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did Uber get around not having to buy medallions for their drivers? What prevented someone from operating a for profit ride program even before Uber without a medallion?

Uber broke the taxi laws and dared regulators to stop them -- and they mostly won that dare. (Remember all that talk about disruption?)

Couldn't medallion holders then sue whomever issues them since they aren't enforcing the rules/terms under which they were originally sold?

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#150

Post by clock_tower »

gehwartzen wrote: post #149
clock_tower wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber broke the taxi laws and dared regulators to stop them -- and they mostly won that dare. (Remember all that talk about disruption?)

Couldn't medallion holders then sue whomever issues them since they aren't enforcing the rules/terms under which they were originally sold?

I'd guess that they probably could.
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