By Reason TV

In May of 2011, Uber began operating in New York City. For the next roughly two and a half years, the taxi industry kept thriving. In November 2013, Medallion Financial, the publicly traded company that’s run by Andrew Murstein, saw its share price hit a thirteen-year high. But as more and more Uber cars took to the streets over the next year and a half, the stock plummeted, ultimately losing about half of its value.

The average number of trips taken in a cab each day has fallen and average farebox revenue has fallen. Taxi garages are jammed with parked cabs because they can’t find enough drivers to hire. They’d all rather go work for Uber.

“It really is remarkable how these monopolies that couldn’t be broken for decades were broken so quickly,” says Barro, “but I think it’s because of Uber moving first and saying, ‘we’re going show people how this thing can be different, and then we’ll have the fight over whether we want that different thing or not.'”

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Related Article: New York’s Taxi Cartel Is Collapsing. Now They Want A Bailout.