Mothers against drunk driving and mayors of Metro join chorus of carpool calls

VANCOUVER – Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) joined several Greater Vancouver mayors on Tuesday to make their voices heard by a growing number of politicians and organizations demanding immediate action by the provincial government to bring rideshare to the province. Tracy Crawford, Regional Director, said denying carpool access to British Columbians could hurt the positive impact the industry could have on reducing impaired driving in the province

. "This is an option that should be offered to people in British Columbia now, not in the fall."

MADD is a member of the Ridesharing Now For BC coalition-sharing coalition 30 member organizations, including hospitality and other groups

Minister of Transport Claire Trevena reported on the availability of services such as Uber and Lyft and what would be done to modernize taxi regulations in the meantime. https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2018/07/19/still-no-timeline-on-ride-having-options-for-bc.html

While she has avoided giving A final response Thursday, According to Ridesharing Now President and CEO Ian Tostenson, the minister's explicit commitment to developing a carpool law in the fall was good news.

"We are very pleased that we have heard the ministry …", he said. "I think the government is taking a cautious approach to what they do, which is well. "

But Trevena's message failed to allay the concerns of all Rideharing Now members.

Iain Black, President and CEO, Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce , said there was no excuse for the holdup.

Black, former provincial minister, said Thursday in an interview that Trevena's concerns the motivation for legislative due diligence was The province has had more than enough time to do its homework, he said.

In the meantime, the fact that the government is lagging behind is tantamount to a de facto victory for taxi companies, which continue to hold a monopoly on ridership in British Columbia, did they he added.

The mayor of the city of Coquitlam, Richard Stewart, said that he did not want to point fingers at the current provincial government, since the previous government had not decided to do so either. carpooling. But Stewart – who spoke to reporters about the loss of a high school friend shortly after graduation due to a drunk driver – was adamant: He added that residents of Greater Vancouver's suburbs were particularly hard hit by the taxis crisis, which often leaves riders waiting in front of downtown Vancouver's popular bars. for a late night house. Some of these people, he said, might choose to drive drunk rather than wait on the sidewalk for an hour – a choice he believes would make carpool useless. Vancouver Mayor Michael Smith has been less generous with his patience, saying the government's delay in commercializing ridesharing is clearly politically motivated

Smith said the province's delay was intended to appease the powerful taxi lobbies. And, although he is not good at recognizing this fact, he has been fed up with pretending otherwise.

"We use vague words like," We need two years to ensure public safety. " "It's a complete nonsense … it's not rocket science … it's done all over the world."

Elections BC's publicly available data shows that the BCNDP Received $ 68,525 from taxi and badociation companies during 2016-2017 The Vancouver Taxi Association donated more than $ 33,500 during this period, with a donation of $ 20,000 two weeks prior to the election. 2017.

(The BC NDP is not the only one to have received significant financial support from taxi companies.) According to data from Elections BC, the Liberals of Colombia British Columbia, for example, received $ 57,490 from several contributors between July 2015 and the end of 2017. Nearly $ 55,000 came from the Vancouver Taxi Association.)

The NDP has since introduced campaign finance reforms , which prohibits union and corporate donations, and limits campaign contributions to $ 1,200

Meanwhile, Mik e Smyth announced that the Vancouver Taxi Association was lobbying the provincial government. Driver -Month for a new application called Kater.

The badociation wants 200 new "Kater Cabs" to be deployed across BC. – excluding competitors like Uber and Lyft – with 20 percent of profits paid to taxi companies. The wagons would operate in the same way as Uber and would require users to be charged at the same rates as ordinary taxis

. And for Mayor Smith, this situation is "inexcusable".

Government Ministers, he said,

"They will not do what they were elected for, that is, introduce a law that serves the public," M added. Smith. "This is not correct."

Perrin Grauer is a journalist from Vancouver who covers the Canadian cannabis economy. Follow him on Twitter: @perringrauer