Taxi Policy
Local breaking news: New regulations for Istanbul taxi drivers.
Once the demand of taxi drivers asking for taxi stops will be met, Istanbul people will receive fast, comfortable and quality service and the taxi stops will be transformed into venues with modern infrastructure. The fuel expense will be diminished and the stress created from air and noise pollution will be decreased. Taxi drivers will be provided free GPS, navigation and LCD screen equipment so that their speed, position and direction will be tracked.
Well, best of luck with that, Istanbul. No one could be more in favor of providing the people of this city with fast, comfortable and quality taxi service than I am. The biggest threat to my life is the fact that I take taxis here regularly, and I'm saying this as someone who was last week walking through the bus station in Jerusalem that was bombed, lives in a city seismologists call "rubble in waiting," and is known to her friends as the klutziest woman ever to take up a combat sport.
I would have suggested that before worrying about giving the taxi drivers a free GPS system, authorities might concern themselves with giving them free seat belts for their passengers. They might also give them tickets for violating the traffic laws, which I've never once seen issued. This latter point is especially puzzling to me, because you would not think the state would shy from such an obvious means of raising revenue.
But one thing to be said in favor of Istanbul taxis is that I can't recall ever being unable to find one. You walk outside, you hail a taxi--there's never a shortage.
And this put me in mind of a question I've been meaning to ask: Can anyone explain to me why Americans are willing, in so many cities, to put up with a system of taxi medallions that creates absurdities such as this?
NYC taxi medallions are one of the most interesting forms of pseudo property that exist in the world.
A taxi medallion is simply a transferable right granted by the city to pick up passengers. However, through effective regulation, the dollar value of this right appears to be heading toward a million dollars.
What is the cost of a NYC taxi medallion? As of early 2009, the cost of a NYC taxi medallion trades in the price range of six hundred thousand dollars for the individual and almost three quarters of a million for the coveted corporate or mini fleet medallion. The industry has seen its overall value increase by almost five hundred percent since the year 2000.
What on earth is this corrupt, socialist nonsense?
I may be missing something here, so let me put two questions to Ricochet: Generally speaking, what system of taxi regulation would best ensure that the following two conditions are met?
- It is reasonably safe to take a taxi, both for the passenger and the driver.
- You can get a cab when you need one.
And why should we care about creating any other outcome?
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Taxi Policy
I suspect it's the same reason that florists in Louisiana must be licensed. Otherwise malefactors would be hawking bouquets of poison sumac, and unsuspecting debutantes would be devoured by feral corsages.
That in addition to the horror that governments feel at the existence of an unregulated activity (see net neutrality). But that's minor compared to the desire to restrict competition among entrenched vendors.
Feb '11
Re: Taxi Policy
There are other legitimate considerations, including not having so many of these menaces on narrow streets as to mess with the flow of traffic for the rest of us.
They cut in front of cars to get to a fare, drive slower than the normal flow of traffic when looking for a fare, take up valuable parking spaces with their taxi stands, add to the number of moving vehicles driven by people with telephones in hand and stink up the air by forever idling. That's off the top of my head.
Nov '10
Re: Taxi Policy
Deregulate!
Condition 1 is satisfied by the customer and the driver. If you want seat belts, only get into a cab that has seat belts. It seems probable that if left unregulated, the market would lead to the formation of multiple cab companies whose brands would become associated with their different qualities. That way you can tell by the livery which cabs you'd like to flag down. All you need to do to ensure safety for third parties is make sure that the traffic laws are enforced equally for everyone on the road. The best way to do that, of course, is to get the government to stop working closely with the cabbies.
Condition 2 is guaranteed to be satisfied in the absence of regulation if it is already met in the presence of regulation. Regulatory overhead will never induce new actors to enter a market.
We should care because very nearly every intrusion of the government into the affairs of the market is a net loss for consumers.
Edited on Mar 24, 2011 at 4:18amFeb '11
Re: Taxi Policy
Jan-Michael Rives: Deregulate!
Condition 1 is satisfied by the customer and the driver. If you want seat belts, only get into a cab that has seat belts.
Edited on Mar 24 at 04:18 am
If you don't like cabs that smell like certain ethnic food, don't get in. If you don't like the music the driver is playing, don't get in. If you don't like the driver's smoke, don't get in. If the driver looks like he may be hostile to the way you dress, don't get in.
Let's see how far that gets you. Many (most?) municipalities do not allow you to pick and choose from cabs at a stand. You have to take the first one in line.
Edited on Mar 24, 2011 at 4:30amFeb '11
Re: Taxi Policy
Pseudo-property is a phenomenon not limited to taxi medallions, and one that appears to be growing. See Dr Claw and the Lobster Underground.
Re: Taxi Policy
Israel P.
Jan-Michael Rives: Deregulate!
Condition 1 is satisfied by the customer and the driver. If you want seat belts, only get into a cab that has seat belts.
Edited on Mar 24 at 04:18 am
If you don't like cabs that smell like certain ethnic food, don't get in. If you don't like the music the driver is playing, don't get in. If you don't like the driver's smoke, don't get in. If the driver looks like he may be hostile to the way you dress, don't get in.
Let's see how far that gets you. Many (most?) municipalities do not allow you to pick and choose from cabs at a stand. You have to take the first one in line. · Mar 24 at 4:28am
Edited on Mar 24 at 04:30 am
Well, there's a solution to that, too: Deregulate.
Feb '11
Re: Taxi Policy
Israel P..."other legitimate considerations, including not having so many of these menaces on narrow streets as to mess with the flow of traffic for the rest of us"
But if regulation makes taxis less convenient/available, most people aren't going to stay home or walk, they will drive themselves, which also adds to overall congestion.
True that many taxis are driven in a rude and even dangerous manner--the solution to this is to enforce the traffic laws directly, rather than trying to limit the number.
Jun '10
Re: Taxi Policy
The reason taxi medallions are selling for $600K is obvious, there are way more potential taxi drivers than than there are taxis. The solution is simple: licencing. Anyone who wants to drive a taxi gets a licence provided the proposed vehicle passes a taxi inspection and the driver passes a test. The cost of the application, test, and the inspection would be to the account of the prospective taxi driver. Given the miles taxis put on there should also be vehicle inspections triggered by miles driven. Also, serious traffic violations would result in taxi-licence suspension, note this would not be a driver's licence suspension but a taxi-licence suspension. Criminal code violations would also result is taxi-licence suspension or revocation.
May '10
Re: Taxi Policy
As a Texas suburbanite, I've only been in a cab once in my life. It was while I was pub crawling with my brother and a couple locals in London. I have no idea how they recognized this car as a cab... or if it even was a cab. It might have just been someone looking for a quick buck. My English friend waved and a seemingly unmarked black coupe pulled up.
Having no experience living in an inner city and needing public transportation, I'll leave this discussion to you guys.
But are there indeed places where taxi services are replaced or augmented by non-professional drivers looking for a quick buck? If so, does it work?
May '10
Re: Taxi Policy
Israel P.
Jan-Michael Rives: Deregulate!
Condition 1 is satisfied by the customer and the driver. If you want seat belts, only get into a cab that has seat belts.
Edited on Mar 24 at 04:18 am
If you don't like cabs that smell like certain ethnic food, don't get in. If you don't like the music the driver is playing, don't get in. If you don't like the driver's smoke, don't get in. If the driver looks like he may be hostile to the way you dress, don't get in.
Let's see how far that gets you. Many (most?) municipalities do not allow you to pick and choose from cabs at a stand. You have to take the first one in line. · Mar 24 at 4:28am
Edited on Mar 24 at 04:30 am
You illustrate the problem with stupid regulation. In a free market, the cabbie who doesn't bathe, is continually rude, or insists on playing loud music would not survive. But because that cabbie has the medallion, and consumers have to get in that cab when it turns up, this cabbie does well.
Re: Taxi Policy
Aaron Miller:
But are there indeed places where taxi services are replaced or augmented by non-professional drivers looking for a quick buck? If so, does it work? · Mar 24 at 8:17am
Russia. I doubt there are places in the U.S. where this is practiced.
Jun '10
Re: Taxi Policy
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Aaron Miller:
But are there indeed places where taxi services are replaced or augmented by non-professional drivers looking for a quick buck? If so, does it work? ·
Russia. I doubt there are places in the U.S. where this is practiced. · Mar 24 at 9:03am
Russia... absolutely. Millions hail cars of anyone who wants to stop to pick up an extra ruble. It works fairly well, though it pains me when I saw a lone woman getting picked up late at night by a creepy-looking guy. There must be some bad statistics about the results of that. Still, it is a norm in Russia, and generally quite effective.
Claire, as for your puzzlement about the Turkish government not seeing an excellent revenue stream from enforcing rules of the road, if it's anything like Russia, it is likely that the taxi companies are owned surreptitiously, or even openly, by government officials. They often give a "hands off" order to police. In my city in Russia, it was an open secret that the governor owned one of the biggest taxi companies in the region. I doubt he'd want to pay traffic fines.
Jun '10
Re: Taxi Policy
As a side note, I saw a very interesting free market idea take hold in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. A company there created a "women only" taxi service. Only women drivers were allowed and they could only pick up women. This gave an extra element of safety to female customers. And of course, they were easily identifiable... they were all painted pink.
Jun '10
Re: Taxi Policy
Sorry, one other thing about Russia. Perhaps the suggestion is wise to ride only in a taxi that has seat belts. However, many Russian taxi drivers are grossly insulted when you put it on and demand that you take it off. You've already started driving, so if you can't resist them, usually you just comply and continue on anyway. Good intentions don't always work!
Re: Taxi Policy
Dave Molinari
Claire, as for your puzzlement about the Turkish government not seeing an excellent revenue stream from enforcing rules of the road, if it's anything like Russia, it is likely that the taxi companies are owned surreptitiously, or even openly, by government officials. They often give a "hands off" order to police. In my city in Russia, it was an open secret that the governor owned one of the biggest taxi companies in the region. I doubt he'd want to pay traffic fines. · Mar 24 at 9:42am
It's a good hypothesis, but I've never seen anyone pulled over and given a traffic ticket. I've heard of it, but I've been living here for five years and I've never once seen it. And I've never heard an explanation for this that makes sense.
Jul '10
Re: Taxi Policy
"Can anyone explain to me why Americans are willing, in so many cities, to put up with a system of taxi medallions that creates absurdities such as this?"
It’s called a revenue-generating, government-sanctioned/protected monopoly – as with so many other professions (e.g., funeral home workers, florists – even the now-famous case of a hair braider).
The taxi medallion situation works to the disadvantage of people living in poor neighborhoods. A person wanting to provide a low-cost jitney service for those neighborhoods has to obtain an expensive medallion, most likely much less than NYC, tho still very expensive. This cuts out the entrepreneur trying to start a business on a shoestring (certainly if the jitney service is in NYC). Cities, along with counties and states, need to reexamine the unseen cost of and need for expensive licensing regulations in general so there can be more business start-ups – which in the end will – gosh – add to their tax base. (Also, think of the savings of subsidized bus lines in many neighborhoods that could be realized by a city, especially during off-peak hours, if a private, low-cost jitney service were available...)