> Yellow taxis in New York also face competition from new green “boro taxis,” which may pick up fares only in the boroughs outside Manhattan and in northern Manhattan. That program has been in the works for three years, including during a period when medallion prices were still rising. The vast majority of yellow cab pickups occur in Manhattan below 110th Street or at airports, where yellow cabs face competition from Uber but not from green cabs. Still, the green cab program has faced strong opposition from yellow cab medallion owners, and the start of falling medallion prices coincides with a June 2013 court ruling upholding the green cab program.

Did anybody read this? My understanding is that green taxi medallions started selling at around $5,000 when they were introduced, and green taxis are now fairly common in the outer boroughs. You also see them quite a bit in lower Manhattan as well (dropping off fares).

Also, did anybody look at that chart? Prices haven't been stable for the entire time span that the chart covers, and the current price isn't even the min for the data set.

Uber's been operating in New York since well before 2013. It just so happens that the (three month as indicated by the chart, mind you) decline coincided with a court decision that upheld a city policy that would put more cabs on the streets in areas of the city that are booming right now.

On top of that, I wonder if there are any other macroeconomic trends that might be affecting medallion prices and ridership overall. Mind you, if total taxi-like revenue for the last given period is R = T + U, where U is Uber's share of the revenue and T is the rest, and the next period's revenue is R' < R, then it's completely consistent to have T' < T and U' > U. In other words, total taxi-like revenue can be on the decline even as Uber's revenues are increasing. This could be because the Uber service is cheaper, or because people are overall using taxis less. Who knows if this is actually happening? I don't. But it'd be interesting to see the question raised and pursued, even to be quickly dismissed by some obvious fact.

Don't mistake this article for economic analysis. It's a puff piece.