Can we stop the transportation insanity? Let’s hope!
All every Uber driver wants, is what every Taxi driver once had.
Everything Taxi drivers ever had and fought for – a living wage; some job security; transparent dealings with regulators and customers; and traffic congestion that is at least manageable if not avoidable – is what beleaguered Uber drivers are now asking for.
I hope Uber drivers get these things; I hope all these things are returned to the shattered and abandoned Taxi drivers, too. Perhaps, now is the time to arrest the slide toward transportation chaos and return to rationality; the December 10th Executive Committee meeting led by Mayor Olivia Chow and the motion she tabled gave reason to hope that it might be.
Is Toronto up to the task of re-designing and re-building the system it intentionally trashed in a fit of temporary insanity?
I hope for that, too. We all hope for that. Well, everybody except Uber, of course, who would apparently rather keep drivers enslaved in an Algorithmic Ghetto while squeezing consumers for every available dollar, but almost everybody else.
Ironic as it is, the outcome of the Committee meeting makes me think that maybe, Toronto actually had it very close to figured out, before 2014.
I’ve gone back in recent months to read the 2013 review, “A Framework for Change.” Researched and written after two years of consultation just before the arrival of Uber, “A Framework for Change” was received by Council but never acted upon.
A satisfaction survey conducted during that period found 94 per cent of users surveyed were either “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with Taxi service. So, the question in 2013 was not how to rescue a failing system, but how to tweak it so that it worked best for everyone; this definitely included users who needed Accessible Taxis and extra help getting around.
In retrospect, it was not the findings of “Framework for Change” which stand out, as they were overtaken by technology almost as soon as the report was released.
No, what stands out to me now is the process used to create the report: collaborative, consultative, grounded in trust and good will (for the most part, at least).
It would be easy to say that “Uber changed all of that in 2014,” but that would not be true.
Uber didn’t change any of that. John Tory and the Council he led made a very conscious decision to ignore the Rule of Law for two years and then go through the infuriating charade of re-writing existing laws to align with their new plan. They did this publicly and in full view of the city and the world. By encouraging the riding public to believe subsidized, super-cheap rides were sustainable, Tory’s team did incalculable damage to ground transportation in Toronto.
Lest anyone worry that I am making these things up, veteran Councillor Gord Perks recounted for the December 10th meeting the history and the background of how John Tory abandoned consumer protection and devastated an industry that trusted him. Perks’ statement was epic, and everyone should listen to it.
“We came up with an agreement that would have put a cap on the total number of licenses; required regular vehicle inspections and safety; installed tools to make sure that driver or passengers were safe all the time; that came up with efficiency studies to make sure that we didn’t create congestion and drive people off to TTC; that dealt with accessibility and fair pricing.
“We shook hands on it, and we were ready to go. But you know, it was John Tory, so at the last moment, he got cold feet, and we lost that deal.
“Now here we are, and here we are struggling with exactly the problems we all predicted we would have if we didn’t put on a cap, if we didn’t control the licensing, if we didn’t control for emissions and we didn’t control for accessibility.”
Perks ended his remarks by throwing down a challenge:
“Plant your feet. Hang tough. We can do this.
“Now, we’ve done some good work to date, the data that city staff and their consultants have provided us with is the good framework for an understanding. In this moment, we’ve had a discussion with people in the industry and people who drive, and people who are were former owners, and we’ve learned a little bit more.
“What Mayor Chow is doing is saying, ‘Take that little bit more, and let’s establish the regulations that we that we need to do our job, which is to protect the public interest.’”
This morning, there is a feeling of optimism in the Vehicle for Hire industry I have not sensed in a long, long time. Hopefully, it’s time to plant our feet; hang tough; and get out there and protect some public interest.
