Will John Tory’s ‘prudent’ leadership be tough enough to tackle Toronto’s big issues if he’s re-elected?
Toronto’s City Council today passed Toronto’s first-ever bylaw to ban the use of a municipal vehicle as a pickup or car-sharing service, the first major city law to regulate or ban the use of vehicles to deliver rides (or even share rides) with other people.
But the news of the bylaw coming forward is just another example of how politicians have overcorrected to a point where many citizens of Toronto can only now hope that, in their favour, they will have been more prudent.
At the same time, it feels as if the city is moving in the direction of having a larger, more complicated bylaw to solve the problem of bad drivers and street-carmageddon than was needed.
The bylaw is about a matter of personal choice and safety for the people and city of Toronto.
Under such a bylaw, if you do decide to use a car-sharing service or car-pooling platform, you have to be able to make reasonable judgments about what the other people in your vehicle are doing while you’re driving. You must also ensure that drivers are using the car-sharing/car-pooling service in ways which are safe, legal and appropriate.
The city has had a bylaw for the last 20 years requiring that people who use Uber or Lyft pay their fares in cash. But Uber and Lyft have changed what their app means by the words “fare” and “cash” over the years. One of the consequences of this change is that there are no legal consequences to a driver for refusing to pay a fare, whether it’s with a taxi, a shuttle bus, an Uber, or any other driver.
There is also no law or rule which says that riders must pay their fares in cash.
The bylaw that will be put into effect this summer, if passed by City Council, will only prevent you from using Uber or other ride-sharing platforms to use a city-owned vehicle as a car-pooling service