Friend-Shaped Robootato

That's b/c you're not smart enough to understand the beauty of price-based allocation. Uber rapidly raising prices (to the market-clearing price, i.e. the price at which everyone who wants to take an Uber at that price can, and every Uber has a customer): 1) Allows people who need the scarce service the most to get it. 2) Incentivizes people to look for substitutes: call a friend to drive you, walk if you can, etc., etc. 3) Incentivizes others to provide that service: people come with private cars, even from distant places, to offer rides for profit, etc. (and, in the process, lower the price). In contrast, forcing them to sell below the market-clearing price does NOTHING to improve the availability of transportation. It just imposes allocation according to some other function: who has a personal connection with an Uber driver or management (corruption), who's lucky enough to get a ride, etc., etc. So you end up with a situation where a single mother with two babies has to stay at the airport, while a young man who can walk, call a friend, or has another option that's cheaper than the market-clearing price but more expensive than the "capped price" simply takes the (cheap) Uber that the mother would have gotten at the market price.