The gentrification reader

scope of their work is. Notwithstanding this, I would argue that it is necessary to establish the relative importance of this mode of transport relative to other transport modes, to help understand why a taxi industry is or isn’t growing. Highlights of this book include the chapters on the history of the taxi and the industry’s licensing structure, two chapters on analytical methodologies, the role of technology and the role of taxis in airport work, night-time economies, specialist transport services and community development (relating to assisting people in transport-disadvantaged areas to get to workplaces). If there are significant criticisms to be made of this work it is that its examination of the taxi industry workplace is limited. The taxi industry, in an unregulated environment, can illustrate all of the worst vagaries of the marketplace and even though one would think that pure market forces as applied to taxi services should in theory provide effective service delivery, and satisfied consumer demand at the lowest possible cost, often this is not the case. In the early years of the industry, the potential for service variation and even fraudulent behaviour by taxi operators and drivers, required early government intervention to regulate and manage taxi services. The taxi industry still suffers from having to rely on a casualised workforce that is often non-unionised, and stigmatised by a lack of employment permanency, limited career structure, low and highly-variable wages, and poor health and occupational standards. This is one area that would certainly benefit from research, but one can understand why it would be difficult to do because of the highly individualistic nature of the work and the fact that management and employees can be strongly polarised into opposing camps. The complementarity of taxis to other transport modes (such as public transit), is also a weak point, which appears to be a natural consequence of the book’s US bias, which is understandable given that public transit in the US is not likely to generate large numbers of fares for taxis at railway or bus stations. The chapter on specialist transit services explores a number of schemes that set out different transport options in demand responsive settings, but not in terms of one mode complementing another mode. Competition from other modes (such as car pooling) and how the taxi industry responds receives little coverage. Environmental issues are hardly mentioned. The book concludes with some uncertainty about the future of the taxi industry, at least with reference to the UK context, given the tendency there towards deregulation. However, the point is made that it is a mature industry, and given that it is the oldest controlled form of transport in the world, whilst revolutionary change seems unlikely, it has been evolving into markets neglected by other modes. I would also have added that given the technological revolutions in mobile phones, GPS technology, traffic management and ultimately driverless cars sometime in the distant future, it is an industry with enormous future potential. As technical advances reduce the advantages of private car ownership, theoretically the taxi cab as an on-demand go anywhere personal transport conveyance could conceivably become a much more significant urban transport mode.