A lottery instead of an auction makes some amount of sense when talking about a necessary item (like general transportation in an emergency, or milk/other foodstuffs, etc). It doesn't make so much sense when talking about a luxury item.

So the question is, how do you see Uber? I love Uber because it's practically impossible to get a cab in SF, but I don't view Uber as a necessity. It's still basically a luxury car service, no matter how popular it is. If it gets large enough to cause the regular cabs to actually start disappearing, then I'll agree it's moving into the "necessity" space (as it will be supplanting the existing regulated supply of transportation), but until that happens, I don't think it makes sense to demand an auction.

As an analogy, if a natural disaster hits and prevents stores from restocking their milk, AIUI the existing laws prevent them from raising the price on milk in return (as it's generally considered a necessity). But what about the hippy organic store down the block, that sells more expensive cruelty-free, organic, locally-sourced milk? Seems like a bit of a luxury good to me, and I would not have a problem with prices being raised on that particular milk, because I can always go to the grocery store and buy the regular milk like everyone else. Of course, I don't know how the law actually treats this particular scenario (and I am rather curious).