Uber fines discouraging
Re: Two Uber drivers charged over the weekend, Oct. 6.
I am so discouraged to read of my city’s decision to pursue Uber drivers with fines of up to $650. Uber serves only to formalize a competitive ride-for-money system that is different from, but competes with the taxi system. In many ways, Uber is more like an informal ride share service than taxis, and Uber empowers the consumer to know their driver and then rate that driver – democratizing the purchase of a lift in the same way online services like TripAdvisor have empowered travellers.
Is Uber really that different from a formalized carpool system? And are workers and students not encouraged to embrace “pay for ride” carpooling to reduce traffic? The only difference that I see is the impact on city revenues related to taxis. This would appear to be the reason the city’s bylaw enforcement office claims not to have sufficient resources to enforce life-saving safety oriented laws prohibiting pit bulls, but there is no shortage of resources to sustain an undercover investigation into a ride share program.
It is difficult to accept such inconsistency and hypocrisy from our bureaucrats.
Tom Pownall, Orléans
Related
Uber thrown under the bus
If the city is truly interested in the state of transit in Ottawa, they would embrace Uber. While we slowly build a light rail system that will take years to produce meaningful results, Uber is trying to provide a shockingly simple yet much-needed, market-based mechanism to move more people using existing infrastructure with very little administrative cost.
Opposition to such an idea is likely only to come from people who have a vested interest in the existing monopoly.
Why is the city protecting the interests of a small group of people (cab drivers) who have an archaic business model at the expense of an effective transit alternative which uses the potential of modern technology?
Robert Le Pors, Ottawa
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