Fletcher concerned about “unidentified PTCs”
“There’s no identifier, and yet, there they are picking somebody up“
Unidentified Private Transportation Vehicles in Toronto’s downtown core “doing 180s,” stopping in bike lanes and picking up fares are a concern for Toronto-Danforth Councillor Paula Fletcher.
“I’m quite concerned at the number of PTC vehicles that aren’t identified,” Fletcher told Executive Committee members on December 10th.
“There’s no identifier, and yet, there they are picking somebody up in the back seat.
“So you’d know that’s not me – I don’t pick people up off the street and have them in the back seat. But I know that that’s a PTC, so why doesn’t it say ‘Uber’ or ‘Lyft’ or someone else on there? Isn’t there some kind of regulation for a commercial vehicle? You can’t just drive around and do things on a business model, you have to show that that’s your business.”
The words “consumer” and “protection” were never used in Toronto’s latest Vehicle for Hire (VFH) recommendations. “Passenger safety” was also not mentioned, despite the fact that the guiding principles provided to organizers at the launch of public stakeholder sessions included “protect public safety and consumer protection.”
“When you’re in the bike lane and you don’t have a sign on you, when you’re doing 180s, you don’t have a sign. When you’re holding up traffic, you don’t have a sign…we don’t know who you are,” Fletcher noted.
“I think it’s just very unfair, because we don’t know who you are, and if you are a commercial vehicle, a Taxi has to have a sign, a Taxi has to have markings, and City trucks have to, everybody does.
“This is a problem, I think. And I don’t know what the percentage is, I think it’s very, very high along anyway any of the routes that I’m going on. What would be the fix for that?”
Staff did not provide any answers to Fletcher’s questions in the meeting.
In November, young women in both Peel Region and York Region were victims of sexual assault in instances in which a man claiming to be a rideshare driver offered them a ride in his vehicle.
Uber and Lyft decals can be reproduced easily and are sold for as little as two decals for $10.00.
