Free Talk Live

Honorable mentions go to New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission for driving out Uber’s online taxi-hailing service and to automobile dealers’ groups in four states for trying to have Tesla dealerships declared illegal. But the grand prize in this week’s unexpectedly heated competition for most creative use of government to stifle innovation has to go to Minnesota.

The fuzzy pink mustache strapped to the car's front grille is a bit puzzling - and maybe a bit obnoxious - but it's not just for decoration, thankfully.

Cars sport the accessory to show they're official drivers for Lyft, a rideshare service that bills itself as your friend with a car - if you summon your friend with an app.

A ride sharing service called SideCar that is very popular in San Francisco and Seattle is under attack by the Austin City Council for being an unregulated taxi service. The City wants to conduct Sting operations to bust, fine, and impound the vehicle of volunteers who give rides to people on a donation basis only. This would be conducted during South by Southwest when the company plans to launch in Austin. The service is offered through a smartphone app and no cash is exchanged.

Men in Iraq steal some wood, so the US army crushes his car. The owner was a taxi driver. Old video, but relevant.

When the state of Colorado decides to trample on your dreams, you must be patient while awaiting justice. The taxi drivers who formed Mile High Cab, for example, have waited more than four years since they first asked the state for permission to serve metro Denver. Now their saga, in its final act, rests with the state Supreme Court. The court is expected to rule soon — perhaps next month — on Mile High's challenge to a bureaucratic travesty, two years after the Public Utilities Commission rejected the company's application to operate for fear that it would spark "destructive competition."

Some guy's friend gets killed by a drunk driver and he decides to do something about it. He starts a service to keep drunks off the road by offering free rides home. It turns out that Quincy, Illinois, is well stocked with semi-responsible drunks, so "business" booms. He adds another car to the service, and eventually a bus. Local taxi companies are not amused.

SMITHFIELD, N.C. - With fresh ammunition from a University of North Carolina law school report, activists renewed their call Thursday for state officials to take legal action against Aero Contractors Ltd.

For years the Johnston County, N.C., air transport company, which has links to the CIA, has been accused of being a taxi service for paramilitary teams that pick up terrorism suspects in one country and fly them to another where it’s easier to interrogate and, perhaps, torture them. The process is known as extraordinary rendition.

Free market mass transit, no public funding. Imagine if some unemployed guy leases his church's 'bus' from Monday to Saturday, and used this system as an on call group taxi.
Going further, what if someone made an open source clone, and used Bitcoin as the internal trade currency? (http://www.dycapo.org/Research)

Of course, some alternatives are healthy...

http://www.avego.com/
http://ithumb.org/

Drivers found to be under the influence of alcohol or other drugs will be arrested, and unlicensed drivers may be cited and their vehicles towed.