To me, at least, this assertion requires some substantiation. Taxis used to be smelly and dirty. Drivers were quite cavalier in their attitudes towards custome

To me, at least, this assertion requires some substantiation. Taxis used to be smelly and dirty. Drivers were quite cavalier in their attitudes towards customers. Hailing a taxi was difficult and chancy. I was scammed by drivers who would take me on indirect routes for more money. It seems to me that what Uber has been better at than traditional taxi services is solely the technology. That is precisely the point. I don't see how ride-sharing services are doing anything to regulate the market, and "cleaning up" is pretty hard to measure. There are now rapid and technologically mediated consequences for both drivers and riders for behaving badly. Uber drivers are always polite, and riders are always polite. Riders are now strongly motivated to never keep their drivers waiting, which was not the case for taxis. The vehicles smell better! Drivers never scam you by driving a circuitous route. It's pretty obvious to me that the market is much better regulated through the technology. Also, while taxi regulation is pretty corrupt, well, Uber is maybe not the poster child we want for how unregulated companies are gonna do better on that front. The point is that while Uber is far from a poster child -- no argument there -- the technology (read: the rapid flow of accurate information in the market) still has them doing a better job than regulatory mechanisms from the 20th century.