[jvm]

How does regulation make taxis safer? As cars, they need to have a license plate you can write down and give to the police. I can't imagine what aspect of regulation offers protections beyond that.

IMO taxi regulation in North America is generally designed for no other purpose than to purposely protect incumbents, so saying those are different things is a false dichotomy. Of course, since that might look bad to the voting public, sometimes they pretend there are other benefits.

I'm not a libertarian btw, I have no problem with the concept of regulations, I just call rent seeking when I see it.