2019-11-19

mindstalk: (Void Engineer)
Decades ago cities started having lots of private cars, and lots of taxis. There was congestion. One approach could have been to cap the number of cars allowed in, and let the market move licenses to the most valuable users. Another could have been congestion charges, with a similar effect. Instead, cities like NYC capped the number of taxis, while doing nothing about private cars; congestion probably was barely abated; certainly modern cities achieved high congestion without the help of Uber.

(Induced demand tells us every taxi removed would have been replaced by a private car.)

Ridehail companies noticed that private cars weren't capped or charged for driving around, and provided a way to match drivers to passengers, successfully undermining taxi prices and supply limits. Traffic goes up again. Cities once again consider limiting the supply of ridehail cars, while remaining committed to allowing every non-commercial person to drive as they please for free.

See a problem, implement a bad solution that doesn't actually solve the problem, layer on another solution for someone's hack of your bad solution...

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mindstalk

July 2025

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