[sstrudeau]

The medallion system is certainly far from optimal and a different regulatory regime that allows for innovation while still addressing concerns around impact on traffic (public roads=classic tragedy of the commons case) and passenger safety would be widely welcome. It could certainly improve the customer experience on many axes (quality, availability, timeliness, cost, etc) though I'm skeptical it would do much to improve the lot of the average driver. Taxi driving is a relatively low skill field, so there wouldn't be much incentive for these new ride sharing companies to treat drivers any more fairly than they are currently treated, since drivers will need to work for whichever companies have the largest market share of potential fares.