The reason Lyft and Uber are working "splendidly" is because they ignored, and then lobbied their way out of, a lot of regulations that taxi companies (in my ur

The reason Lyft and Uber are working "splendidly" is because they ignored, and then lobbied their way out of, a lot of regulations that taxi companies (in my urban area) were required to follow. At first by claiming they were somehow different because there was a smartphone involved instead of raising your hand or calling a number...and then by lobbying their way into much cushier regulations. In my city taxi related regulations included: * a police unit dedicated to "hackney" matters and a hotline to call for everything from reporting dangerous driving, dirty/poor-repair vehicles to lost item reports, and police actually followed up on most of these, and had the authority to pull a vehicle from service * mandated minimum number of paratransit vehicles, ie wheelchair vans * prohibitions on declining rides based on the destination or pickup area * submitting drivers to a criminal background check by police. Go lurk in the uber/lyft forums and do some searches and you'll see drivers bragging about sailing past the corporate-run background checks even with violent felonies. * random inspections by police * standards for being in-service * actual wheels-rolled-this-far metering by a device certified with visible-to-customer seal, not GPS which isn't nearly as accurate especially in dense areas with tall buildings where you get multipath errors and very limited constellation visibility...and almost entirely an uninspectable software black-box even ignoring issues with high density areas. Lyft and Uber could be inflating their mileage by a couple percent whenever they feel like it and nobody would be able to tell. * receipts on the spot listing vehicle, driver, distance, fare. Live in a known bad neighborhood? Good luck getting an Uber/Lyft to pick you up. Need a wheelchair van? Good luck, Uber/Lyft didn't have any for years and it took lawsuits by states and cities. Drivers describe seeing someone come out their door on crutches and driving off because they don't want the "liability" (really, they don't want to wait for someone slow.) See an Uber driver driving dangerously? Nobody gives a damn, and good luck getting the plate versus a large, high contrast 3-4 digit number posted on every corner of the car. You cannot reach anyone at Uber or Lyft unless you had a ride booked; the apps trigger an outbound call from their call center, but only if you had a booked right and answer the questions the app asks you correctly.