Taxi medallions cost big bucks, though, don’t they? Does Uber have to buy a medallion in the areas it serves?
Yes taxi medallions cost big bucks. Here in SF they are $250,000 although no one is buying...
A big reason the taxi industry is hurting. They have to pay for medallions, drivers pay yearly MTA fees, they have to comply with regulations )some of which do make sense like drug screening and 24/7 cameras and so forth) plus are limited to how many taxis are allowed in the city and they are forbidden to surge... the playing field is so grotesquely uneven it is not even a playing field.