Uber and Lyft vs. City Hall

I’ve got a cover story
in the latest issue of
Wisconsin Interest Magazine looking at how Uber and
Lyft have turned the cab business—and politics as usual—upside down
in the Badger State. Here’s an excerpt:

“All of a sudden on a weekend in downtown Milwaukee there
were hundred of cars to choose from if you want to get home
from the bars,” says Anthony Sanders, who was the lead
attorney for the Institute for Justice in the Milwaukee
lawsuit. “The drivers were more confused than anyone because for
the longest time you could barely get a job driving, let alone
own your own vehicle,” he says. “It was just marvelous
to watch it all play out.”

Milwaukee’s taxi regime unraveled at an astonishing pace.
Ald. Robert Bauman, who sponsored the legislation that boosted
the number of permits by 100, came out with a new bill lifting
the cap altogether and legalizing services like Uber and Lyft.
Bauman’s bill was a model of laissez-faire governance, mandating
that drivers submit to regular vehicle inspections but
little more. The legislation sailed through the council, and
in August, Mayor Tom Barrett added his signature.

Uber and Lyft transformed the city’s taxi laws by throwing
a wrench in the political sausage factory. The city’s 1992 cap
came into existence in the first place because permit holders,
with much to gain, hired the law firm of Adelman, Adelman
& Murray to lobby the council to impose a cap. The bill
passed the council without getting much attention because
future drivers and the general public—those most hurt by the
cap—weren’t clued in, so they didn’t know to object.

Uber and Lyft clued them in.

Read
the whole thing.

Reason on Uber and
Lyft.