Quote:
Originally Posted by Wormius
I believe, based on the results of London and NY, that even if our taxi system was the best in the world, Uber would still come in and try to disrupt things by undercutting the taxi system until it went bust. Then you are left with an Uber monopoly, until somebody else makes an app that does the same thing for less.
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This is a bit weird, is anyone arguing that Uber has a monopoly in New York or London?
And we already have a Government backed monopoly of the industry that clearly isn't working as well as it should be. If Uber were to come in and create a monopoly because it's such a good service, isn't that at least better?
Besides, I don't think there's many people asking for it to be unregulated. We want there to be proper insurance, we want there to be laws in place that forces Uber to pick up all passengers, provide services to the disabled, have proper background checks, vehicle inspections, etc. Doing so would still keep the taxi companies competitive. And this is all something that City Hall should have been focusing on years ago. Come up with a bylaw that is fair and open and no one would be siding with Uber if they decided to come in illegally. Instead (at least in my circle) the general perception seems to be that City Hall's backing of the taxi industry or failure to adapt forced Uber to come in and operate illegally as a way to force the city's hand.
I believe there's been roughly 15,000 Albertans laid off, I don't see why the City is taking such (in)action to protect the 1500 licensed taxi drivers. There's been a spur of violent crimes, including four car jackings and five shootings in a week, yet the city has focused resources into an undercover sting to go after Uber drivers? The city was disappointed in the 100 DUIs issued during Stampede this year, yet they are preventing Uber from entering the market when studies have supported the claim that it lowers DUIs. None of it makes sense, no one should be supporting City Hall on this issue.