The taxi booking app bias

But taxi-booking apps threaten to upset the regulations. For example, Didi lets users bid extra for a taxi. That feature allows the prices to rise above that which is fixed by regulations. Customers shouldn't have to pay more than the legal price to get a taxi.

Taxi-booking apps have made life more convenient for people with smartphones and for taxi drivers as well. They make the taxi system more efficient by letting drivers know where there is immediate demand. But while appreciating these benefits, the problems faced by people who don't use those apps shouldn't be overlooked. Public transportation exists to serve all citizens, and the transportation authorities should create regulations with that goal in mind.

Didi and Kuaidi serve a minority of the market at the expense of the majority. Only 40 percent of China's cell phone users use smartphones, according to research firm IDC, in a report publicized in March 2014.

Smartphone ownership is also skewed towards the young, making it harder for the elderly to get cabs. According to a survey of smartphone users internationally by the Neilsen company, the 18-24 age group is the most likely to use smartphones, and the penetration rate decreases with each older age group.

The argument that the elderly need to be protected has factored into some of the regulations that have been made. George Chen, an editor for the South China Morning Post, related the supposed story of an elderly woman who couldn't hail a cab in Shanghai because she didn't have an app in a March 3 article.

"Many taxis stopped but the first question the drivers asked her was if she had this or that taxi-booking app in her smartphone in the hope they could get the bonus on top of the normal fare," Chen wrote.

Whether the story is true or not, that kind of conduct isn't allowed under Shanghai's taxi regulations.

While Shanghai banned the use of taxi bidding apps during rush hour, other cities have emphasized that the bidding feature is illegal, and Shenzhen has even gone so far as to call for a halt on the use of such apps entirely.

Regulations shouldn't go too far in the direction of curbing innovation, but as it was at the start of the year, more regulations were needed to protect the public. Like the creators of the apps, the creators of the regulations are also experimenting with new methods.

Mitchell Blatt is the producer of ChinaTravelWriter.com and an editor at a map magazine in Nanjing.