Over time the medallions have become worth more and more, and certainly you could eliminate them ~ leaving an awful lot of cab drivers very angry at you, and residual elements of the Sicilian mob, and current Jamaican crews, and Dominican gangs ready to move in and start up killing cabbies so they can make room for their buddies/members.
The medallion system only looks evil ~ the replacement is undoubtedly evil.
How did the medallion save cabbies’ lives? I’d love to hear you explain this.
Keep in mind that the medallion is an arbitrary limit on the number of cabs available. Mafias thrive in oligopolies/monopolies.