[mckoss]

Taxi services are primarily regulated at the behest of the existing taxi companies to keep out competition. The public interest of the regulation is just a cover story.

We just returned from Paris, and I can tell you that people in Paris are not happy with cab drivers (overpriced, and often refuse riders based on too many people, too many bags, or too short of a trip).

This smells like a campaign of a greedy and corrupt union hiding behind a law to protect its poorly performing industry.

[mhw]

> The public interest of the regulation is just a cover story.

It's a single data point, but crimes committed by the drivers of unlicensed cabs in London are a big enough problem for there to be awareness campaigns like this one: <https://tfl.gov.uk/campaign/be-cabwise>. Example of the kind of criminal activity that regulation is trying to deter: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22998900>.