A Backhanded Defense of Las Vegas' Taxi Regulation

At Medium.com, Blake Ross takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the consumer protections that exist courtesy of the the Nevada Taxicab Authority, which (putting it mildly) seem to be rather more friendly to the existing taxi businesses in Las Vegas than they are to any disgruntled riders. By contrast with Uber (just booted from Las Vegas), Ross points out that the Taxicab Authority relies on antiquated complaint forms, random police checks, overlooked airport signs, and expensive tracking devices. Nonethess, says Ross, "I stand with Nevada and say—leave this to the pros."

Comments

The Uber vs Lyft vs Taxis thing is interesting

[halivar]

But it's got fuck-all to do with anything nerdy I can think of. Medium.com is covering this well. Let them handle it.

Re:Monorail

[edawstwin]

I go to Vegas quite a bit, and every taxi driver that I spoke with during the monorail era (when they were talking about or actually extending it) was for it going to the airport. They make more money the more time cabs are occupied, and just going back and forth between the strip and the airport meant waiting in one line or other a great deal of the time. It's much better to take one $50 fare in an hour than two $20 fares. I don't know if the various companies' bottom line would have been affected - probably so, but there would be more cabs available (and thus more revenue) from the strip hotels at peak times (some times it takes quite a while to get a cab) if the monorail extended to the airport.