Taxi vs Ride-Hauling Companies
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/Judge-orders-UberX-and-Lyft-to-stop-operating-in-Philadelphia.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/10/07/uber-lyft-philadelphia-ride-hailing-judge-injunction-cabs-taxi-regulation/91744294/
Taxi companies have been trying to shut down ride-hauling companies such as Uber and Lyft since those companies started. In Philadelphia, Taxi companies tried to take advantage of a legal suit to declare those ride-hauling companies illegal. However, while they convinced the judge to rule in their favor, this ruling was not enforced by anyone, and the ruling was quickly overturned several days later. While this is just another example of Taxi companies trying to take down ride-hauling companies, network concepts can be use to analyze why these attempts never seem to take ground.
When we look at the power network for Taxi companies, in places without competing services, the network can look like this:
In this instance, the “Everyone Else” node is actually representative of a lot of nodes that all link to Taxi Companies. With Taxi Companies in the center of this network, they hold the most power and can essentially do whatever they want. However, when other ride-hauling companies like Uber and Lyft are added to the network, it becomes like this:
In this case, the power has shifted. Now, everyone else is in power. This new network puts the power in the hands of the majority of people who need driving services. Since law generally follows public opinion, its clear to see why everyone wants Uber and Lyft to keep doing what they’re doing. Unfortunately for Uber, we can also look at public opinion and create a positive-negative graph as follows:
We know this graph is stable, so it looks like as long as Taxi Companies are viewed negatively by the public, ride-hauling companies are here to stay.