Welcome to the tech policy podcast. I'm Evan Swartzchrober. On today's show, Uber, the topic that never ends. We've talked on this show about Austin and Massachusetts and California and some of the regulatory battles that the company has gone through in the United States. But today we're taking the show International. We're going to talk about

some battles in London and Montreal and who better to discuss international policy than an

American. So joining me to discuss this is Jared Meyer, research fellow at the Manhattan

Institute and author of Uber Positive, why Americans Love the Sharing Economy. Jared,

welcome back. Hey, thanks for having me, Evan. You know, it's been a while since you've been on the show, Jared. I think listeners have been going through withdrawal, you know, to hear the

soothing sound of your voice, which is also the voice of a generation, the voice of millennials.

And a show for Uber, but a lot of different things going on. You said it, not me. But now that we've poisoned the well, let's get on to the show.

So, Jared, what's going on in London?

Recently, the mayor, Sadiq Khan, promised to bring back the resurgence of the black taxis.

And listeners, if you haven't been to London or watched any movies that take place in London, unlikely.

But just like the yellow cab in New York

is a symbol, the black taxi in London is a symbol. And the mayor recently said, quote,

I will be a mayor that begins the renaissance of the black taxis. They're iconic. We saw the

closing ceremony at the Olympics. What a role they had. I don't want the black taxi to go the way of

the red telephone box, end quote. So Jared, is this a good idea? What exactly is he proposing? Well, we should always make

government policy on what's cute and what we want to preserve from earlier generations. But no,

if you look at Mayor Con's statement, if you, Boris Johnson in the past, the previous mayor of London,

he said a lot of things about Uber that were pretty negative as well, but he never actually followed through. And London's one of the

best markets in Western Europe for Uber when you're going up against the likes of, let's say,

France. And the previous mayor, Boris Johnson, he was a member of the Conservative Party,

the Tory party, and now the current mayor is a Labor party member, correct? Yes, yeah, they switched over

representation. And you can see with Khan's views, he's clearly in the established taxi driver's

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