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Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

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Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#91

ITT there seems to be a lot of sentiment that city/county local governments shouldn't be able to implement policy on anything but the most trivial matters. As if politicians and corporations residing in other cities are better suited to make impactful local policy. I dont get it... Then again I am still scathing from a similar case study in my home town of San Diego, with Airbnb. Our city council passed some policies…

Or to put it another way, San Diego property-holders now have more control over what they do with their property than San Diego elected officials.

[deleted]

Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#92
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of these seek to influence state legislators, and the evidence is right there in the article. Where is the evidence of Lyft's lobbying? I'd like to counter your question with a question: why shouldn't a mayor be speaking up to influence state legislators if they believe legislative issues could have an impact on their city? This is literally one of the primary duties of being an elected leader at the city level.

Why shouldn't anyone else be speaking up about legislative issues? Doesn't everyone else have the same rights as a mayor to do so?

They absolutely do have that right, and should be encouraged to write their state legislators if they are motivated to. but since the letter in the article was written by a mayor, from the perspective of a mayor, my response here is directly about the perspective of said mayor. I was attempting to keep my comment congruent with the context of the post.

Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I'm aware large cities provide unique challenges and can understand why NYC for instance should be allowed to regulate their own taxi/livery situation, Firstly -- NYC's regulation of Uber/Lyft probably had much to do with the mayor's massive campaighn donations received from the TLC: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/nyregion/de-blasio-reaps-... NYTIMES: Taxi Industry Opens Wallet for de Blasio, a Chief Ally by M…

Medallions have always been regulated and restricted, not to benefit an asset owning class of rent seekers (that was a side effect), but to prevent the narrow, constricted island of Manhattan from choking on gridlock. Lyft and Uber essentially abused a loophole and caused traffic speeds to decline in the core. Congestion pricing with a fee on all yellow & black car rides for origin and destination within CBD would be…

Why is the fee only on yellow and black car rides, rather than on all cars? Shouldn't we prefer non-private vehicles on the street instead of ones that will do parking?

Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> were you can use all of Germany's public transit for ~4.200 € / year. Well, you can't. You can use Railway and S-Bahn because S-Bahn is traditionally owned by the DB. You can also use other public transport in the specific regions that the DB negotiated for, the ones that are included as "city" on a long distance railway ticket. These regions do not even always align with the regions for public transport, for examp…

Yes there are some exceptions, but you're just proving my point: Even the Bahn can't negotiate full alignment across Germany although its only the largest of cities that don't accept the BC100 completely. Then again, almost all of those cities have an extensive S-Bahn system, so we're really just talking about some subways across Germany where you still have to pay extra. Case in point is Berlin: What edge case does…

It’s not an edge case. Zone B begins at the inner S-Bahn-Ring. There’s a lot of destinations that are reachable via U-Bahn and Bus/Tram outside the inner ring. It’s so common to travel outside zone A that you can’t even buy a zone A ticket, it’s always A+B

Keep in mind that “city” is only available for 120 cities in germany in the first place.

Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#95
post #48
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I see a politician selling their constituents up the river to a special interest group that also happens to fund his re-election (or threaten funding of his opponents), I don't actually feel much different then if it were a regular quid pro quo corruption arrangement. It happens all the fucking time. In fact, that they aren't breaking any laws when doing so makes me feel more incensed about it.

Special interest groups generally can’t “fund his re-election” because it’s illegal for corporations to donate to candidates. It might be worth considering whether your belief that “it happens all the fucking time” is based on facts or some sort of inchoate narrative you’ve picked up over the years.

This is false, by omission.

They can hire the candidate after his term in office to 'consult', or give paid speeches, or lobby for then, or play golf all day. Or just cut a check to his charitable foundation, out of the goodness of their hearts. (A recent presidential candidate's family has hit four out of five of those.)

They can fund a PAC that either endorses, or opposes a candidate. The difference between funding their campaign directly, and funding a PAC that campaigns on a candidate's behalf is a fig leaf.

Tell me - in practice - how do these things differently from direct funding of a campaign?

Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#96

I've seen the effect of San Francisco "governing itself". In many respects, I would rather they didn't. "Governing itself" isn't some magical good. The cost of incompatible laws in jurisdictions can be large and invisible. Since the legislature ignores the cost of laws, they are encouraged to complicate things as much as possible. I'm on Lyft's side here.

Why the scare quotes?

Just normal quotes in this instance. I’m specifically discussing the phrase “governing itself”.

Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#97
post #85
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? Lobbyists are paid to talk to politicians. They represent interest groups, and make their case in DC and other places. They do make campaign contributions, but that does not represent anywhere near the same level of influence as an actual person to person, quid pro quo bribe. There are actual places in the world where bribery is rampant, and if you lived in one of those places, you really wouldn't need to…

Local level bribery might not take the same forms that it takes in other countries, but the top level bribery is easy to see. We have massively expensive elections that are used to direct money towards a massively expensive system of 'election contractors' all of whom were elected officials at some point that now receive dark money via this system. Of course, compared to our lobbying system, where people like Joe Lie…

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying lobbying is great. I'm merely trying to keep some perspective that lobbying, while not ideal, is still much better than actual bribery.

Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medallions have always been regulated and restricted, not to benefit an asset owning class of rent seekers (that was a side effect), but to prevent the narrow, constricted island of Manhattan from choking on gridlock. Lyft and Uber essentially abused a loophole and caused traffic speeds to decline in the core. Congestion pricing with a fee on all yellow & black car rides for origin and destination within CBD would be…

Why is the fee only on yellow and black car rides, rather than on all cars? Shouldn't we prefer non-private vehicles on the street instead of ones that will do parking?

Congestion pricing is a toll around Manhattan south of 60th St. Private cars would pay only on entering or exiting, since you can't use a private car to pick up strangers in New York (even Uber and Lyft use black cabs, which have a different license from yellow cabs that only covers pre-arranged rides and not street hails).

Since cabs may not necessarily enter or exit the CBD while doing the trip within it, a fee equivalent to the toll should be charged for an origin in the CBD or a destination in the CBD, with a double fee charged if the trip stays wholly within it.

The purpose of such a fee and toll would be to keep vehicles flowing. Cabs are actually worse than private cars for this, since private cars spend most of their time parked while cabs spend their time between fares driving in circles.

Parking externality is handled separately; there is a tax on parking fees, and the total number of off-street spots has been capped for a while.

Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#99

Calling Portland "dense" is hysterical. As a Portlander, I can say we are a terrible example of what NIMBYism does to efforts to lower housing costs by adding density. Our city has a decent public transit setup and if the focus was on adding usable density with improved transit options, rather than people trying to protect neighborhoods, we'd be much better off. I am fine with Lyft wanting this regulated at the state…

Usually what happens when things get regulated at the state level is that change is a lot slower to happen, and the state might have either indifference toward or opposing interest with the city. There's already kind of a Portland-vs-rest-of-Oregon dynamic, plus a Portland-vs-Clark-Washington-Clackamas-Counties dynamic.

I think the process that we've done in Portland is pretty decent: have a prototype/trial period, see how traffic patterns change, evaluate trade-offs and safety, then pass laws based on the experience. Lyft even previously worked directly with the city to develop and implement these local rules.

It's not clear to me that preventing Portland from regulating services like Lyft without state intervention is a win. Certainly Bend, Medford, Seaside, etc. would probably benefit from their own rules. Perhaps legislation that facilitates some basic ground rules would be helpful, but also allowing for additional local regulation would be the best fit.

When the state complicates or bans local regulation/development, seems like the trend is to just stop it and then do nothing else. For example North Carolina's HB1 bathroom bill, Chattanooga's municipal fiber vs. AT&T's lobbying for bans, Atlanta's MARTA being at the mercy of the state legislative branch for its funding.

Re: Lyft lobbying to prevent Portland from regulating impact of ride-sharing

#100
post #6

Color me naive, but I'm always confused why those troubled by the lobbying criticize the influencers instead of the influenced. The influenced aren't some innocent party here. Surely it is more reasonable to act in the best interest of your company as a lobbyist than it is to act against your constituents as a politician. Where is the scathing letter directed towards the writers/signatories/supporters of the bill in…

> Lyft doesn't pass laws.

That's really just a semantic argument. When someone proposes a bill to a governing body, it's implied that they are trying to get it passed, even if they aren't congressfolks and don't have a vote. If not, why would they propose it? Certainly convincing legislators that a bill is a good idea is part of getting a bill passed, whether or not you are a congressperson, right? Maybe the sentence isn't exactly, technically correct, but it's not far off from reality.

> Where is the scathing letter directed towards the writers/signatories/supporters of the bill in question?

The letter to me reads like an expression of deep disappointment. Previously Lyft worked particularly well in concert with the city government, and Wheeler heaps praise on these past efforts. But now they're going behind the city's back and going to the state government. Maybe they are just participating in a "reasonable" business practice, but it is in stark contrast to their behavior in the past.

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