I no longer run across cars with pink mustaches, but I think that’s because the people operating with Lyft in Madison don’t want to get ticketed for it… or get the bird and an evil glare from all of the taxis they drive near.

I have seen them and Uber operating, though.  They load 7 people into a sedan (a different level of illegal), have two electronic devices suctioned to their windshield (one the cell phone with the app, the other a GPS device), and park in the middle of traffic to pick people up.

Hey, if you’re going to break one law, why bother dealing with any of them, am I right?

This article does well to capture most of the concerns of the taxi companies in Madison while pointing out the need to keep technology moving forward.  We can’t sacrifice the ordinances in place protecting the public and taxi drivers to do this, but we cannot stunt the growth of industry at the same time.

I still have my doubts that any changes to the ordinances to bend to the will of these bankrolled app companies won’t matter because they still won’t follow the important ones that won’t change.  If they aren’t getting penalized now for disobeying them, what’s the motivation to follow the rules later?