I don't think it's taxis being rare that's the problem. You could always call a taxi or a car service, and occasionally I'd see people do that from bars. Which seems to be the basic model here too, call a vehicle to a location and wait for it to arrive. And business travelers already take car/limo services to the airport when they're being reimbursed. But most people avoid taxis/cars because it's expensive, and because you've always got your own car anyway (and parking is easy/free). Maybe in a smallish area around Montrose or Rice Village it'd work, but I don't see people taking Uber/Lyft to most of the city, unless they really cut the prices (which doesn't seem to be their strategy). If you're going downtown and live in Clear Lake or Bellaire, you could today avoid driving and pay ~$100 in round-trip taxi/limo fare. But nobody does. Or, you could in the future pay ~$100 to Uber/Lyft for the same thing. Will this entice more people? My guess is not many.