Future Taxi Deregulation Will Not Look Familiar

Matthew Feeney Those who have argued for the deregulation of the taxi industry will be familiar with the claim that taxi deregulation was tried in the U.S. and that the results were so undesirable that regulation was introduced. In a recent Washington Post article about ridesharing and taxi regulation, Catherine Rampell states that prices rose in deregulated taxi markets and that the latest calls for deregulation are only the latest in a familiar cycle. However, future taxi deregulation will be different from past deregulation schemes thanks to relatively new changes in technology that allow passengers to overcome knowledge problems that led to price increases in deregulated taxi markets. Rampell’s article includes some interesting historical insights. Regulations and licensing laws for passenger transport vehicles are nothing new. In the 17th century, Charles I tried to limit the number of horse-drawn carriages in London by passing an order which was ignored. During the Great Depression, some unemployed Americans found a source of income in the unlicensed taxi industry. By the 1990s much of the American taxi industry had been subjected to re-regulation following a wave of deregulation in roughly two dozen cities beginning in the 1960s. Today, there are calls for the taxi industry to be deregulated amid the growth of ridesharing companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar. Some argue that taxis cannot fairly compete with ridesharing companies because they are hampered by...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs