Uber to Resume in Calgary December 6 2016

[jammies]

The city following legal process and thinking of ways to try to damage or stop Uber's entry into the market is still not "corruption".

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by jammies

This isn't the cheap CBC reboot of Dukes of Hazzard, though, ol' Boss Nenshi-Hogg isn't sitting around a backroom with his cronies and a gallon of hooch plottin' how he's gonna finally take down those Uber boys to protect his taxi racket. Come back to the real world, the whole conspiracy angle is ridiculous.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by jammies

The city following legal process and thinking of ways to try to damage or stop Uber's entry into the market is still not "corruption".

Maybe not corruption per se, but it is very well known that all members of council receive extensive donations from the taxi companies and they have a long standing record of protecting the monopoly in Calgary, to the detriment of the people they were elected to represent.

[Mister Yamoto]

It's disturbing how quickly the city is dealing with this. Maybe there really is a "taxi cartel".

You can walk around downtown and watch drug dealers operate in plain view, potholes take years to fix, the year they had that occupy protest it took the city six months to move the squatters from Olympic plaza.

But step on the toes of the cab drivers............. within three weeks Uber drivers are served with legal documents 6 inches thick. How many man hours have gone into this?

This is the biggest operation City hall has taken on since Bronconnier waged war against the "street preacher". You remember him, that criminal who makes hot dogs for hungry people.

I don't even like the idea of uber, but this is nonsense.

[btimbit]

I don't nessesarily support uber, but the cities defense of a corrupt and failed service is disgusting. They want to attack uber and add more regulations around it fine, but they're ignoring the bigger issue

[pylon]

I would love to see the stance of the Nenshi supporters in this thread, had Bronconnier gone after Uber. I'd wager everything they'd be on Ubers side, not Nenshi's.

[corporatejay]

Nenshi supporters in general or on this issue? I love nenshi but I find his position on this indefensible.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I love nenshi but I find his position on this indefensible.

Nenshis position on Uber is what it has to be given his position.

[getbak]

Given that the City of Edmonton did the exact same thing months ago, I assume that they've been advised by their lawyers to follow certain steps to cover the city from any possible liability or lawsuits.

[PsYcNeT]

I consider myself a Nenshi supporter but its still stupid, and he deserves all the unflattering photoshops.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by jammies

This isn't the cheap CBC reboot of Dukes of Hazzard, though, ol' Boss Nenshi-Hogg isn't sitting around a backroom with his cronies and a gallon of hooch plottin' how he's gonna finally take down those Uber boys to protect his taxi racket. Come back to the real world, the whole conspiracy angle is ridiculous.

The irony here being that Nenshi is currently being sued for trying to make Cal Wenzel look exactly like that, referring to him as the Godfather and talking about his backroom dealings. And Nenshi wasn't wrong, Cal Wenzel was caught in a secret meeting trying to get 'his' mayor elected. It's almost foolish to think that the taxi companies weren't doing the same for 'their' guys...

[Mr.Coffee]

Jammies has convinced me that the conspiracy angle is probably ridiculous, but at the same time it just seems something isn't right, illegal or likely legal. Regulation or not there is a problem the city is ignoring and seems to be complicit in actively working to prevent from being solved.

Their behaviour / actions aren't consistent with a group that wants to enact the changes. Otherwise the messages would be different I feel. Comments such as "yes we recognize the problem but we have to follow regulation / law" would go a lot more with me than what's going on. So I will back off the outright bribe / corruption angle but I probably land more where 4x4 and others are.

[Frequitude]

I'd like to give some credit to Calgary cab drivers recently. I've never had a problem with rudeness or anything like that, but I have noticed a step change in their politeness since Uber came along. Not more chatty (which I find annoying) just more pleasantries like "Hey how are you doing today", "not a problem", "yes sir", etc.

[para transit fellow]

Posters are talking about significant donations from the taxi industry... But I am not seeing large donation in the Mayor's 2013 finance disclosure. Anyone ever see actually these donations from the taxi industry listed?

http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net...osure_9-15.pdf

[Oling_Roachinen]

Uber has been around for 6 years, it started operating in major cities 5 years ago. It first launched in Canada nearly 4 years ago. Uber's first test into Calgary was over 2 years ago. When the test run was over Uber issued a statement that said it would be operating in Calgary the second they amended the rules for it. And yet the city did nothing except make it clear that it was illegal. Not one bit of change. If it's not corruption, it's incompetency.

There's clearly a lot to be addressed, insurance, driver background checks, vehicle inspections, etc. etc. but if the city was serious about those issues they could have amended the current bylaws to address those issues long before today. They didn't. Instead the current law explicitly outlaws a company like Uber operating in Calgary under any circumstance. It's pathetic.

And this isn't just about the convenience of Uber, studies have shown that it has a positive affect on the DUI rates in multiple cities that it has entered. It's literally saving lives.
http://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery....104002&EXT=pdf

Economically, results indicate that the entrance of Uber X results in a 3.6% – 5.6% decrease in
the rate of motor vehicle homicides per quarter in the state of California. With more than 13k deaths
occurring nationally each year due to alcohol related car crashes at a cost of 37 billion dollars, results
indicate that a complete implementation of Uber X would create a public welfare net of over 1.3 billion to
American taxpayers and save roughly 500 lives annually

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by pylon

I would love to see the stance of the Nenshi supporters in this thread, had Bronconnier gone after Uber. I'd wager everything they'd be on Ubers side, not Nenshi's.

I was actually thinking of making a thread on this. I kinda go back and forth when it comes to supporting Nenshi, he does some good things but says and does some ridiculous stuff too.
So here's a question, if there was a mayoral election within the next month, would this issue be something that could sway your vote? Obviously, not knowing who the other candidates may be comes into this question, but ignoring that, would city councils approach to this affect your decision?

Because I think pylon nailed it. If this was Bronnconier, I think there would be much more of an uproar.

[Dagger]

Originally Posted by btimbit

I was actually thinking of making a thread on this. I kinda go back and forth when it comes to supporting Nenshi, he does some good things but says and does some ridiculous stuff too.
So here's a question, if there was a mayoral election within the next month, would this issue be something that could sway your vote? Obviously, not knowing who the other candidates may be comes into this question, but ignoring that, would city councils approach to this affect your decision?

Because I think pylon nailed it. If this was Bronnconier, I think there would be much more of an uproar.

I'm not sure how it couldn't.

[longsuffering]

I'm amazed at the number of people who support an unregulated, uninsured, untaxed taxi service operating in our city, just so they can get a taxi when they're out on the piss.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by btimbit

So here's a question, if there was a mayoral election within the next month, would this issue be something that could sway your vote?

Yes. I've voted for Nenshi. Nenshi is a pompous ass, but when he's fighting on "your" side it's funny and almost endearing, almost. I did like him sticking up against Cal Wenzel, and even the recent "half-baked" thing I had 0 issue with, because again I agreed with him. However, because of the Uber issue he will not have my vote again.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by longsuffering

I'm amazed at the number of people who support an unregulated, uninsured, untaxed taxi service operate in our city, just so they can get a taxi when they're out on the piss.

We want it regulated, we want it insured and we want it taxed. What we want is for it to become legal. It's City Hall that doesn't want that, for some strange reason.