[humanrebar]

It's my understanding that drivers don't have it so great. They generally work for the medallion owners instead of for themselves. They certainly can't experiment with their business model (pet-friendly cabs? credit card only cabs? setting the fare at pickup? multi-passenger, multi-destination schemes?).

On the passenger side of things, aside from the lack of innovation, getting a cab in certain neighborhoods is problematic. Cabbies profiling potential fares is still a problem, despite regulations. There are other availability issues as well, for example when the weather is bad or when you get "upstreamed" during peak commute times.