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

Monorail

[XanC]

The Strip's monorail could trivially have extended to the airport, but that plan was nixed in order to preserve the taxis' revenue stream. What a crock.

Re:Monorail

[TWX]

Doesn't matter much when the hotel shuttle will pick me up anyway.

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.

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.

We've already seen the alternative to regulation..

[Anonymous Coward]

...in the taxi market, which is why we have regulation today.

And we've already seen how psychopathically Uber is willing to behave, for the avoidance of doubt.

Yeah, the first hit's always cheap. Do Americans have history classes in school?

Re:We've already seen the alternative to regulatio

[halivar]

Do Americans have history classes in school?

Yes, I can see eager young minds salivating at the thought of learning more about the exciting history of taxi regulation in the US. Come on, man; nobody in the nerderati even knew about taxi regulations until we started talking about Uber. Everyone's an expert on whatever topic they Google about.

Re:We've already seen the alternative to regulatio

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Apparently not. But I am American, and I understand the problem here.

What bothers me isn't the lack of an understanding of history but rather a lack of understanding about civics.

Regulations can suck, but they don't -have- to.

If the regulation sucks, reform the regulations. Don't throw a huge hissy fit and shit the bed out of spite.

There's so much entitled Valley logic in the business model at Uber that it's hideously disturbing,

(Not to mention the whole "let's get a PI on a journalist who didn't like us" thing)

I can see Vegas wanting to protect their revenue

[Virtucon]

Sorry I travel 2 sometimes 3 times a month to Vegas and I have to say outside of NYC it's the biggest taxi racket out there. Because of the terminal locations, it's a guaranteed $10 sometimes $15 bucks before you even get to the Strip because of the circuitous routing and roads. One time I had a driver "miss" the airport exit and then had to argue with him over the extra $13 bucks on the meter because of his mistake. So now I rent cars when I go there and again, Vegas leads this category in stupidity. Hike to the Rental Car Shuttle Bus, ride for 10 minutes, more lines, more hassle and oh yeah nice "Franchise" fees on top of "Airport Taxes" to pile onto the car. Still, it's better than a taxi there.

Re:Monorail - define trivially.

[dgatwood]

Just make it high enough that the planes can go under it. :-D