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[GlyphGryph]

Not around here, you can't.

(Again, unless you've got far more money than you could ever make that you're more than happy to throw away. and even then you'd only be purchasing the /chance/ to be /allowed/ to)

[Ancre]

Serious mode on that note, I really think the age limit on drivers licenses should be abolished. Along with massive testing reform; most drivers are not competent enough to drive, and as such our testing standards should be raised significantly.


There are 10 year olds out there that are better drivers than I.

It would be nice, but first you have to make the US less dependent on cars. I think one of the reasons it's so easy to get a driver license in the US is that everybody needs to drive to do stuff like going to the store to buy food.

[kaijyuu]

Not coincidentally, I'd love some mass transit reform too

Though maybe both problems can be solved easily if those self driving cars become cheap within the next decade or two.

[Ancre]

In my country, tramways are the current fashion trend

But yeah, self driving cars (working on something else than oil) would be a nice solution.

[Reelya]

Anyone who can get a car should be able to stick a sign on and call themselves a cab service.

Uh... I'm actually kind of cool with this? I'm not entirely sure why it should be against the law for me to get compensation in exchange for giving people rides (unless I've got a fleet of such vehicles or am willing to give over 100% of my profit to various gatekeepers of course).

My main concern isn't what you'd do, it's about how easy it would make it for other wrong-doers to get coercive control of young ladies etc without any trace of who was driving. I'm cool with the idea too in relation to the vast bulk of the population, but if there were 10's of thousand of unregistered 1 person cab companies in New York, that'd be great cover for serial killers, kidnappers, gangs trafficking in sex slaves and other types.

http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/061803/met_12819930.shtml

Cabdriver arrested in 6 serial killings

It was Durousseau's work as a cabdriver that first linked him to the slayings. A surveillance tape at a bank showed McCalister making an ATM transaction on Jan. 10 with a Gator City cab in the background, police said. Investigators pulled dispatch records from the cab company, which showed Durousseau's fare log. Police could not say last night when the dispatch records were reviewed.

he definitely wouldn't have been working for a legit cab company with traceable records if that hadn't been legally required.

[Leafsnail]

One of the main jobs of cabdrivers is to take vulnerable (often drunk) people who can't drive home.  Therefore there really needs to be a system to vet them and ensure there is a way to safely identify and hold and hold them accountable.

[lorb]

A taxicab is a car and a car has a license plate. I think that's sufficient.

[Leafsnail]

I'm meant to look at the Taxi's numberplate and work out if it's truthworthy from that alone?  And then if something bad happens I'm meant to remember the number which I saw briefly while drunk in order to identify the driver?

It's a heck of a lot easier if I can just remember a name or face and bring the complaint to the taxi licensing firm.

[Nadaka]

I'm meant to look at the Taxi's numberplate and work out if it's truthworthy from that alone?  And then if something bad happens I'm meant to remember the number which I saw briefly while drunk in order to identify the driver?

It's a heck of a lot easier if I can just remember a name or face and bring the complaint to the taxi licensing firm.

If you can remember, if you escape, if you are alive. For sufficiently bad things that happen, seeing the license plate number won't track it down at all.

[da_nang]

A taxicab is a car and a car has a license plate. I think that's sufficient.

Unless you're Jamie Hyneman.

[GlyphGryph]

You guys do realize that getting permission to run cab services cost 600,000 dollars (admittedly, less in some places, but usually not much less), right?

I'm not buying thats for safety reasons. If I'm prepared to meet the safety regulations, I should be allowed to drive to a cab - a displayed id, registering my name and probably license plate, this stuff I'm fine with.

But 600,000 dollars?

If you can remember, if you escape, if you are alive. For sufficiently bad things that happen, seeing the license plate number won't track it down at all.

Nor will remembering the taxi drivers face.


Also, Reelya, I'm not sure how much "protection" that offers when they only found out what happened thanks to ATM cameras - which could have been adequately accomplished by simply requiring all potential cabs to maintain some publicly displayed identity number on the sides, no?

[Nadaka]

You guys do realize that getting permission to run cab services cost 600,000 dollars (admittedly, less in some places, but usually not much less), right?

I'm not buying thats for safety reasons. If I'm prepared to meet the safety regulations, I should be allowed to drive to a cab - a displayed id, registering my name and probably license plate, this stuff I'm fine with.

But 600,000 dollars?

If you can remember, if you escape, if you are alive. For sufficiently bad things that happen, seeing the license plate number won't track it down at all.

Nor will remembering the taxi drivers face.

Liability against lawsuit in case of accident?

[GlyphGryph]

What?

[RedKing]

The NY cab regulations are kind of insane, they're essentially an institutional cartel.

But at the same time, having used cabs overseas I'm okay with some regulation. My wife was in Taiwan, and her taxi drove right past what she knew was the right road to turn onto, then went up a ways, stopped the car and demanded more money. I think the dude was shocked when she started cursing him a blue streak and demanding he go back. He finally gave in when it was clear she wasn't going to be extorted and was likely to turn him into a eunuch if he touched her.

Only problem I ever had was that Chinese cabbies aren't terribly fond of using the road. They'd rather drive on the sidewalk, the median, the lane for oncoming buses, etc. I would not have been surprised had they driven on the side of a building. Again...NY cabbies drive aggressive, but they're not insane. Chinese cabbies are a mixture of insane and fucking brilliant.

[Nadaka]

Hell if I know I don't even know what started this cab discussion, I don't remember anyone bringing in any references to start it off.

I had (and still have) no idea how much it costs, or why.

But its cost may not be relevant to the if it is licensed or not and why.