Shared Rides or Bandit Cabs?

Are Companies like Uber and Lyft Helping or Hurting San Francisco?

HANC’s series on the impact of the “sharing economy” continues at our June membership meeting with a look at “ride-sourcing” – the unlicensed on-demand services that let smartphone users connect to private drivers for a taxi-like door-to-door service. UberX, Lyft and Sidecar have stormed the barricades of Bay Area transportation since 2010. The phenomenon goes by many names, with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) choosing the phrase transportation network companies (TNCs). Their mission is to “disrupt” what they see as the taxi industry’s monopoly, with “rides in minutes” booked through their smartphone apps. The widespread impression that a taxi trip involves a frustrating wait to ride with a rude driver in a grubby cab has given these companies an eager market.
Panelists at the meeting will include Veena Dubal, an attorney and post-doc fellow at Stanford who has researched and written on the impact of TNCs on labor protections, and Bob Planthold, a long-time activist on transportation and disability issues and former member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Policy Advisory Council.

As TNCs have spread globally, they’ve encountered significant resistance from governments, taxi drivers, activists and the public, being forced to pull out of locations from Kansas to Nevada and from Boise to San Antonio. But regulatory response in California and San Francisco has been surprisingly timid. Initially, the services operated essentially illegally. Yet there was little attempt to prosecute violations of local ordinances or state law. It would be easy to infer a connection between the large political donations made by some wealthy investors in these companies (Uber alone has received $5 billion in funding) and the laissez-faire approach to enforcement.
This determination to avoid regulation has many facets. Taxis are strictly licensed and inspected; their professional drivers have mandatory training; cab owners must be insured, and liability generally extends to the owners in the event of injury caused by their vehicles. In contrast, TNCs can sign up as many drivers and vehicles as they like; training is rudimentary; insurance is the driver’s responsibility; and when accidents happen, the companies have been quick to blame the driver. When an UberX driver struck and killed 6-year-old Sophia Liu in a crosswalk at Polk and Ellis on New Year’s Eve 2013, the company simply “deactivated” the driver and sought to disclaim responsibility because he was between fares at the time. Passengers, cyclists and pedestrians in San Francisco have also been target of robbery, homophobic and racist abuse, sexual harassment and various assaults by Uber and Lyft drivers, including a hammer attack.

It also seems that TNCs are only interested in serving some of the public. That’s certainly true when it comes to who can book a vehicle: to use Uber, Lyft or Sidecar you need a smartphone and a credit card. To use a cab, you just need the money to pay your ride. In cities like San Francisco, taxi companies are required to provide accessible transportation for wheelchair-users and others with disabilities, often through paratransit programs. For several years, TNCs fought against any requirement to provide accessible vehicles, but recently their approach has changed. In 2014, Uber began touting a limited number of UberWAV wheelchair-accessible vehicles and suggested to the Mayor’s office it could take over San Francisco’s entire paratransit contract. Both actions came as Uber was preparing to justify its accessibility programs to the CPUC.

Beyond the transportation-specific concerns, TNCs exemplify the erosion of labor protections implicit in much of the sharing economy. Historically, cab drivers – many of them recent immigrants – have had very poor labor protections. Ironically, TNCs came on the scene just as taxi workers were organizing through the National Taxi Workers’ Alliance to gain rights such as collective bargaining, improved driver safety and reliable shift assignments. “Ride-share” drivers lack even the limited protections that cab drivers do have.

Hear more on these issues and how public policy should address them at the HANC general membership meeting, 7pm Thursday, June 11 at 1833 Page Street. near Cole. San Francisco.