Upstate New York will go another year without ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. A bill to regulate the industry could not clear a legislative hurdle before the end of the 2016 legislative session.
In New York City, customers can get a ride with a swipe on their smartphone, but not upstate.
Though a bill to bring app-controlled ridesharing services cleared the state Senate by a wide margin, it failed to make it out of committee in the Assembly.
Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, a Utica Democrat, believes it was downstate interests that prevented the companies from expanding upstate.
“Uber, Lyft and other ride-sharing companies is something we sorely need in upstate New York. It’s an embarrassment that we don’t have it. It exists in 49 other states and New York City,” said Brindisi.
The battle over ridesharing drew a lot of attention up until the end of the legislative session on June 18th. Groups like the Business Council of New York fought for the services.
Vic Christopher, co-owner of popular Troy restaurants the Lucas Confectionary and Peck’s Arcade, fought for ridesharing. Christopher says although the bill did not clear the Assembly this year, ridesharing here is inevitable.
“I think the lawmakers that are putting up obstructionist tactics right now within the New York State Assembly will look foolish in the rearview mirror, so to speak.”
Advocates like Christopher say ride-sharing would offer patrons more options for a safe ride home and bring more visitors to town.
Uber last fall released its own study saying if regulated, ridesharing could bring 13,000 jobs to upstate.
Not everyone agrees.
At a meeting with supporters and opponents for ride-sharing in Saratoga Springs in January, Value Van Taxi and Car Service owner James Graczyk said his main concern was how ridesharing drivers would be insured and certified.
“If it’s a level playing field, I’m all for it. I think competition is good for everybody. It keeps prices down and keeps service up. Those are all good things. But if they come into effect and they don’t have to pay $3,000 a car for insurance like I do, and the rest of our drivers, no vetted police background checks, no FBI checks, anything like that, that’s a safety issue.”
Brindisi said he does not consider the insurance concerns “a valid issue.”
“The amount of coverage that the ride-sharing companies would have to carry for passengers who are injured as a result of an accident is almost six times higher than what a taxi cab in an upstate city has to carry,” said Brindisi.
Brindisi said the main sticking point in the Assembly debate was over the amount of insurance a ridesharing company would have to carry for the time between a driver’s being notified a customer wants a ride and the time that customer is picked up.
Organizations like the National Limousine Association have pushed for fingerprint background checks for ridesharing drivers. The high-profile battle over fingerprint background checks led to Uber and Lyft leaving Austin, Texas after new, local regulations were passed.
Republican state Senator George Amedore, a supporter of the bill, said the Assembly version fell victim to politics.
“And it was the influence of New York City Democrats controlling the Assembly that kept picking these numbers for insurance coverage out of the sky,” said Amedore.
But Amedore believes a bill he co-sponsored that did pass would bring ride-sharing to eager customers. The bill authorizes the Capital District Transportation Authority to oversee livery services throughout the Capital Region.
The Senator says then the Capital Region could adopt a similar approach to ridesharing as New York City. There, under an agreement with the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission, Uber and Lyft technically operate as for-hire vehicles.
“The insurance coverage would be there, the background checks. I think CDTA would do an outstanding job. And then we wouldn’t need the legislative action in Albany to take place or a bill-signing event with the governor to take place, and we could get Uber or ridesharing or Lyft or any of the other companies that do it to get started right now,” said Amedore.
That bill awaits Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature. Meanwhile, the debate to bring ridesharing upstate seems destined to continue when lawmakers return to Albany in January.
