An Uber style private hire vehicle does an estimated 10x trips per day as a private car in a city the size of London.
An extra 100.000 taxis/ubers could take 1 million private cars off the streets.
It seems like low hanging fruit to reduce traffic problems in large cities.
My guess is that there are political reasons not to do it (taxi licensing is a source of money for many municipalities).
Jitney style minivans work well in some countries and are even more efficient, cheap and flexible.
The problem is again political: they are banned in most places because they compete too efficiently with public transport.
Thats the dream.
Ordering a private taxi over a open Taxi Nostr client.
Paying the taxi driver directly to their own lightning channel through the Taxi client.
95% goes to the driver, 5% to the devs and infrastructure operators.
No taxes, no minimum wage, no licenses. Everyone is happy.
I'd bet they could earn more income than they do now while taxis could be much cheaper for customers.
Then the taxi driver could recharge their electric car tax free using something like nostr:nprofile1qqstc5wc47u27v8ud0kn7wwz6qzkh9gu0rcs2kca4ejuphgqd5vmlngpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzv9hxgtc7486nw 's distributed charge.
Though, as you say, the rent seeking class won't allow this, even though the tech is available. I imagine they would sue and repress taxi drivers and charging station operators participating in an ecosystem like this.
People with kids will still want to drive. The falling birth rates are reducing private car ownership in cities already.
Sure, but people with kids already use their cars more efficiently: more trips per day + higher vehicle occupancy.
If you can replace 1 million, single person vehicle, 2 trips per day (work commute) with cheap ubers or robotaxis... that goes a long way to reducing congestion.
Of course I'm talking about voluntary reduction by offering cheaper, better alternatives. Don't think I'm in the 15-min city, surveillance heavy, agenda 2030 camp 😉
