What you described, though debatable on its own, has nothing to do with regulatory capture.
> Regulatory capture is a form of political corruption that occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure; it creates an opening for firms to behave in ways injurious to the public (e.g., producing negative externalities). The agencies are called "captured agencies".
Errm "instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating"
Incumbent Taxi companies have been lobbying regulation bodies for laws to stop competition for a long time. That's exactly what i'm talking about. They use excuses like "reducing congestion" etc when more taxi's actually reduces congestion.
This sounds exactly like regulatory capture. The taxi and limo commissions are doing exactly this.
Uber is taking advantage of a market that has been completely stifled by regulatory capture, allowing the incumbents to catastrophically under invest in personnel, systems and vehicles. These companies pillaged the industry with terrible services. Competition is going to bring them back to the table with far better service and pricing.
> Regulatory capture is a form of political corruption that occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure; it creates an opening for firms to behave in ways injurious to the public (e.g., producing negative externalities). The agencies are called "captured agencies".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture