Most transportation analysts are convinced Uber and Lyft are transforming the way people get around in the United States, but there’s been relatively little hard data. New York City for years has required the ride-hailing apps to disclose how many drivers are working for them and how many trips they provide. Massachusetts earlier this year […]
Ride-sharing
Posted inPolitics, The Download, Transportation
Uber bad behavior
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” King James Bible, 1Corinthians13:11 Uber, the precocious technology disrupter, is growing up and with it comes the usual pre-pubescent growing pains. But in […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Baby, you can’t drive my car
General Motors wants to own the driverless car market. So much so they have pushed legislators in at least six states, including Massachusetts, to file bills that would only allow the zombie cars to be made and owned by auto companies who have experience building the vehicles in the US. That would exclude from the market […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Ride-sharing showdown looms
The Massachusetts Senate is slated to unveil its ride-sharing bill this week, which should provide a hint of how contentious the negotiations between the two branches will be as the legislative session comes to an end at the end of next month. The House bill, which was approved in early March, didn’t please anyone. The […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Taxi medallion owners under water and drowning
Few tears are being shed for taxi medallion owners but there’s no denying they’re being squeezed into oblivion by Uber and Lyft. But the ripple effects are going beyond, with banks that hold mortgages on the one-time valuable medallions foreclosing on the loans or eating the principal and taking interest-only payments to try to recoup […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Why GM is investing in Lyft
Massachusetts lawmakers can’t keep up. They’re still trying to figure out a way to regulate ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft, yet the market is already moving on to the next big thing: driverless cars. General Motors announced on Monday that it is investing $500 million in Lyft and plans to partner with the […]
Posted inTransportation
No common ground in Uber fight
WITH A RAINBOW of partisans as a backdrop – hundreds of Uber supporters in blue, a near-equal number of taxi drivers in bright yellow, and a smattering of Lyft devotees in magenta – lawmakers at the State House on Tuesday took testimony on four disparate bills seeking to craft state rules covering the unregulated ride-hailing companies. […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Transportation
On ride-sharing, Legislature must embrace innovation
MASSACHUSETTS HAS BEEN the cradle of innovation since our country’s birth. Big ideas, groundbreaking solutions and global advances in technology, medicine, government and education have been launched in our Commonwealth. In more recent years, Massachusetts has become recognized as the biggest technology industry competitor to Silicon Valley and our economy has been driven by innovation […]