Do You Uber?
As I have written in previous blogs, according to my kids, I am old fashioned about a lot of things. Lately, their perception of my old fashioned propensities has extended to my habit of hailing cabs. I do not mind, at all, standing on a city block and raising my hand to hail a cab. In fact, in the real old days when I first began working, a certain Gotham member (Nancy) and I used to joke that we had a unique talent for hailing cabs. I'm certain that we still do.
But, my kids do not hail cabs, they Uber. Apparently, they find it easier to “hail” an Uber cab by using an app on their phone than stand on a street corner with their hand raised. They tell me that it’s much simpler, faster, and more reliable than yellow cabs. I, being the Mother that I am, worry about them using Uber. I wonder how regulated it truly is, how the drivers are screened, and whether they are overpaying for their fare.
Are you old fashioned like me or do you Uber?
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As the public transportation member of the Gotham Networking's Expert Witness committee, I hope to have the pleasure of serving as many plaintiffs' expert in the 1000 or so lawsuits against the City by the owners of taxis, since the City's failure to prohibit Uber's entry into the service area effectively "thinned" -- and will continue to "thin" -- the density of potential taxi users, devastating the value of 13,000+ taxi medalions in the process. As I hear it from taxi drivers with whom I ride, the deflation has already driven down the value of the medallions from about $1M to $700,000 (and it is likely to become worse) -- thus damages, fragmented as they are among hundreds or perhaps even thousands of medallion owners, are already $300,000 times 13,000+. Do the math. I can't possibly see the City winning any competently-managed lawsuit against any plaintiff's efforts to recover this loss: The medallion buyers did not factor the thinning of the City's overall density into their decisions to pay $1,000,000 for a medallion (or less years ago knowing that its value would inflate). Further, if the City now prohibits the Ubers' protrusion into the City, the Uber owners may be able to sue the City for their purchase costs -- although Uber is a national corporation, and it should be able to mitigate most of its damages by simply transferring the vehicles to other venues (although these may be somewhat limited by other venues having far more intelligent mayors).
If any Gotham members know any attorneys representing taxi owners, please have them call me: 212-766-1121. There are both enormous damages at stake and strong grounds for injunctive relief -- and it is critical that the first of these suits be handled competently, for reasons that should be obvious to any attorney or coalition of them. I don't know enough about the history of all this to know if the TLC is a co-defendant. I suspect, as a "creature of the City," it would not be, but should probably be named as one, as its defense would likely prove helpful to the small army of plaintiffs' attorneys.
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http://www.newsweek.com/new-york-city-suspends-uber-over-trip-records-297139
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