Why is it taking so long for the city and province to figure out how to bring transportation network companies like Uber onto our streets?
Of course there has to be a level playing field with taxis, but Uber and its ilk, including the motorcycle rickshaws of Lahore, are now pleasing customers in more than 400 cities around the world. Even Calgary, where the mayor was caught on an unauthorized Uber webcam in a U.S. city calling the company’s president a “dick,” has just turned around and worked it out.
As with all disruptive technologies, there will be winners and losers. Life is not fair: the 60 Vancouver cab licences currently for sale with no takers are never going to go up in value, no matter how long Minister of Sleeve Rolling and Foot Dragging Peter Fassbender takes to respond to the embarrassed millennials in the BC Liberal Party. Holding citizens hostage to a limited number of taxis in a vain effort to protect taxi owners’ equity is past the point of frustration.
Peter Ladner – Business In Vancouver – November 22, 2016.
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