Houston's taxi and limousine industry is one of the most strictly regulated in the nation, resulting in miserable service and prohibiting new competitors from legally entering the market. City Hall's own internal memos explicitly state that Houston's rules inhibit customer choice without providing any tangible benefit. With traffic growing worse, the last thing we need are regulations that block new transit options from coming to town.
It should have been easy to persuade the City Council to strike the failed policies from the books. Mandatory prices, minimum fleet sizes and required advanced reservations serve little public good, and have no place in laws regulating Town Cars and other vehicles-for-hire.
But then the lobbyists got involved. Over the past several months, policy has turned to personal politics, and what should have been an easy vote has become a municipal mud fight. Instead of discussing regulations, council members are talking about individual companies.
Do you support Yellow Cab? Do you support Uber, a car service software company that connects riders with drivers? What about other newcomers like Lyft or Sidecar?
Council members should leave that choice to consumers. City Hall's job is to write policy that achieves goals of safety, predictability and healthy economics. Right now, Chapter 46, which covers vehicles-for-hire, fails to meet those ends.
Frankly, Uber's antics have worn thin. The $18.2 billion company's gleeful noncompliance with laws across the nation has begun to smack less of civil disobedience and more of corporate privilege run amok. We're witnessing the values of a Silicon Valley where men think they're kings because they learned how to code.
It is hubris matched only by Houston's current taxi monopoly, which acts as if it is entitled to exist without competition and thinks itself a saint because it accepts Metro vouchers to pick up the handicapped - a rather profitable form of charity.
Instead of duking it out in City Hall, these companies should take their fight to the people.
But it won't be a fair fight until the City Council updates the regulations in Chapter 46, finally legalizing car service software companies like Uber and Lyft. Until that vote, Houstonians will be prohibited by their own government from seeking out new businesses and new opportunities in a city that is supposed to be a place without limits.
This transit scuffle has been an invigorating exercise in civic debate, with questions about safety leading Uber to expand insurance coverage for drivers. But as the vote nears, it seems as if council members have begun to wipe the mud from their eyes. We hope they see the pressing need for new transit options in our rapidly growing city.
