@tuna: I don't have this problem so count me out - you're all welcome to make a big deal out of it if it really is a big deal for you, but personally I think it's way too much about way too little. And I also suspect that, at the very least, some of the problem has to do with passengers rather than cabbies.

Pub scene often includes folks ages 25-60, maybe with a few older & a few younger, average age probably somewhere around 35. Generally speaking it seems quite a lot less age conscious than possibly comparable pub scenes in Europe or North America - I don't recall noticing anybody worrying about how old he/she is, except perhaps for students here for a semester or so who may be 20-22; also don't recall any unpleasantness ever directed towards anybody else because of his/her age.
There are a lot of Lao and Vietnamese and some Thai students here, but among westerners and/or non-students there may be more US-Americans than others (although they're still a minority); also quite a few Koreans, Brits, French, Italians, Dutch, Aussies, Belgians, Japanese, Germans, Canadians, perhaps in roughly that order - after that, dozens of other nationalities from all continents. Hard to estimate total numbers; my guess would be somewhere between 2000 & maybe 7000, majority male, majority unmarried.

'Problem getting one' simply means that there isn't always an empty taxi coming down the street the minute I want one - sometimes it takes a few minutes - worst might be as many as 20, but usually less - especially on Wenlinjie around midnight.
'A LOT OF TAXIS' means average maybe 3 a week over 10+ years, almost always late night after 10PM.
'PROBLEM' means something worth getting worked up over.
Hey, I'm not trying to put anybody on here - this is really my experience.
OK, let's see - once, a festival weekend perhaps, around midnight, I got so bored trying to find an empty taxi that didn't pick up somebody else before it got to me that I simply quit trying and walked home. And oyeah, once I tried to get a taxi to the airport around 6PM, when the shift changes, and it took maybe 25 minutes to get one. Yeah, that was a hassle, but I can't see my total of taxi experience as equal to some massive problem I need to complain about. Would be nice if the shift change wasn't right about 6PM though, but this is Kunming, and it seems 6-8PM is when you eat - not earlier, not later.
And, OK, maybe 3 times I've tried to get a cab at the train station and the cabbie has quoted a price (e.g., non-meter fare) - I didn't argue, simply took another taxi, maybe from 50-100 meters away.

This in 10 years. Can't remember ever getting in an argument with a cabbie, or having any reason to. The exceptional problems I've just mentioned really don't make me feel I need to support some campaign against cabbies.

Only other thing I can add to my 'luck' with taxis is that I always sit in the front with the driver, & perhaps chat if the guy wants to.

I really can't figure out what you guys do or don't do that doesn't work right - I stop the taxi on the street, tell him where I'm going, when I get there I pay the meter fare plus the 2rmb surcharge that is standard (sometimes I hand over 2.5 rmb), and I'm done. Has worked every single time I've taken a taxi (average probably 3-4 times a week) for the last 10.5 years in Kunming. This has ALWAYS been the case, and I've taken cabs at all hours of the evening (I virtually never take them in the daytime), including say 4AM when I've been very wasted and an easy target for anybody who wanted to rip me off.
I can only think that there's either something wrong with passenger/driver behaviour, or that drivers may take advantage of (or just become confused by) passengers who can't speak clear Chinese, or that something weird happens when you CALL a taxi (I never have).

Perhaps somebody ought to try to actually talk to a cabbie about his/her point of view & experience - my guess is most cabbies, when carrying a fare, wouldn't want to get into it, but maybe this could be done in some way (i.e., a fair, straight-forward interview - maybe a gokunming staffer might try to arrange such an interview, could make a good article).
Busses: I ride them all the time, sometimes with a backpack, never have problems & don't feel I have to watch everything like a hawk. Sorry you got pickpocketed, I'm sure it can happen, but the only bus problems I have is that often I have to stand because the bus is crowded. I stand pretty good, not really differently from everybody else on the bus, who all seem to take it pretty much in stride.

P.S. I am a whitey & obvious foreigner.