L.A. Shuts Down Ride-App Services, Provides a Lesson on Regulation
Many of my friends here in Los Angeles are rightfully outraged at the cease-and-desist order that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation sent to up and coming, popular ride-app companies Lyft, Uber, and Sidecar, ordering them to halt business within the City of Los Angeles.LA Weekly ran a portion of the the letter sent by LA DOT taxicab administrator Thomas Dischler, which accuses the three upstart companies of:
... operating an unlicensed, for-profit commercial transportation service in the City of Los Angeles. In the interest of public safety, Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar are hereby directed to cease and desist from picking up passengers within the City of Los Angeles.
Well thankfully we have our lords and saviors of the City of Los Angeles DOT to keep us "safe" from those dastardly ride-sharing companies! Of course, all government regulation at any level is done in the name of keeping the otherwise-ignorant citizens "safe" from one thing or another. Whether it's large sodas, frisbees, or ride-sharing services, bureaucrats everywhere are always itching for the next industry or company they can ban, or at least regulate and get their cut.If my Facebook feed is any indication, these services (Lyft in particular) have become fairly popular out here in La-La Land. Are all of my peers who use these services too stupid to decide if the ones they choose are safe or not? How many times has one of us been in a crazy taxicab going 90 mph swerving all over the road, or been cut off by one? Does anyone actually believe that "certified" taxi drivers are somehow magically safer to be driving us around town than a driver of any one of these ride-share services?A brief glance at Yelp! shows that in my area of L.A. Yellow Cab has a 2.5 star rating, while United Independent Taxi has a 3 star rating. Meanwhile , Uber has 3.5 stars and while I couldn't find a listing for Lyft in L.A. the San Francisco Lyft has 4.5 stars. While this is no scientific study, it certainly seems that public opinion seems to rate these new ride-share services at the very least on par with if not higher than the traditional taxi cab services.The licensing of taxicabs in Los Angeles does not serve to protect the citizens of LA who wish to find the most efficient and affordable means of transportation in a city where transportation is extremely difficult, even if you are just trying to go grab a bottle of wine down the street. Entrepreneurs should be encouraged to attempt to create new marketplace solutions for the city's transportation problems, not threatened by pencil-pushing busy-body bureaucratic demon spawn, serving only to protect their TaxiCab Overlords.Hopefully the fine folks at Lyft, Sidecar, and Uber have great legal teams to fight this nonsense. Inthe meantime, let it be a lesson to those that constantly call for government regulation to fix all of society's ills. More often than not, it is that very regulation which stifles the marketplace from providing the cost efficient, more pleasant alternatives that the people demand as is the case with these great ride-sharing services.For what little good it might do, there's a petition over at Change.org calling for the repeal of the cease-and-desist orders.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
