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Biber Architects

Biber Architects

New York, NY

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100 Ideas: 013 Taxi Ratings

By jamesbiber
Feb 17, '12 10:35 AM EST

Everyone prefers a safe, fast, odorless cab with a driver who knows the city. In the market economy this would mean that the A-rated driver could demand a higher rate, but the city economy has no incentive policy. Why get better when you don't get more money? Good drivers get better tips, but even bad ones get tips. In a cab-rating system, we could express our pleasure with the quality of the driver by paying more. Everyone would be happy to oblige, and the pressure on drivers to improve would help us all.

We're almost there: Increased fares for hybrids were proposed to offset their higher cost and drive the market to them. Do both and we could have a new breed of cars and drivers.