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City of Toronto Files Court Injunction Against Uber
Sebolains writes: The city of Toronto in Ontario, Canada has filed a court injunction on Uber Canada Inc. today that requests for all operations in the city to cease. Uber has been operating there since 2012 without a license from the city, and so officials are concerned that Uber's operations pose a risk to both drivers and riders. How quickly this will happen, we don't know, but the city has asked the courts to be expedient in hearing this application.
It's called regulatory capture. Government initially regulated transportation for hire for legitimate safety reasons; over decades the regulatory agencies set up for this purpose were captured by the status quo. A balance ensued wherein the safety needs are mostly met and the established players don't have to worry about competition. Now there's a disruptive new player that doesn't want to play by the old rules; this annoys the established players along with the self-important bureaucrats that regulate them. Along the way we've lost sight of the legitimate concerns about safety. In the ideal world we would blow up the existing regulatory apparatus and replace it with a leaner version that would focus on the core mission of ensuring safety without interfering with the natural development of the market.
The same story plays out in a multitude of different markets. George Will writes about it and other examples of crony capitalism/regulatory capture quite frequently. One day a politician will emerge that can actually explain this concept to the masses; this will be a rude surprise for people on both sides of the political aisle who are invested in the status quo. Think of a modern day version of Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I would love the actual statistics of accidents and incidents involving Uber to be researched during the court hearings. Somehow I feel that it won't be significantly (or at all) worse than with licensed taxi drivers and companies. Of course, whatever the stats are, they have nothing to do with whether or not Uber breaks the law, but they can be used to judge if the regulation in its current form is necessary in the first place.
That's only if you look at CMAs - in reality the GTA or GTHA would be #5 or $6 with 6 to 6.5 million people