a safe ride somewhere at a fair price, with an established enforcement regime for violators of the public trust.
You possibly take that for granted, because it’s been that way for 100 years in most places. We can go back to the old way, but you won’t like it in the long run, and we will just go back and regulate them in the end. Same as food trucks, they got regulated because they serve the public. It’s what government is FOR. To keep you safer, to keep you from being cheated, and to make sure everyone else on the road is safe from the tendency for commercial enterprises to cut corners in the name of profit.
this is a relevant article: Uber and Taxi History: NYC Cab Expert Warns Regulation Is Necessary | TIME
In the end, Hodges says, cabbies and passengers have always wanted the same things — “We don’t want to have hyper competition, we don’t want reckless driving, we don’t want drivers about whom we don’t know very much,” he says — and, whether or not it always works perfectly, he believes that history has shown that regulation is the best way to get there.
