Toronto takes a second look at rules for Uber, Lyft

Thestar.com
September 24, 2018
Francine Kopun

Two years after a bylaw allowed Uber and companies like it to operate in Toronto, the city is conducting a review of the rules amid concerns over growing traffic congestion.

Toronto has issued 68,037 private transportation company (PTC) licences for drivers for ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft, according to Carleton Grant, director of policy and strategic support for Toronto’s licensing department.

Uber Canada general manager Rob Khazzam, shown in January, says it's too early to say whether companies like his are contributing to or alleviating traffic congestion in Toronto.

“Absolutely, 100 per cent, roads are more congested,” said Kristine Hubbard, the operations manager for Beck Taxi, who has been critical of the city for allowing private transportation companies to operate under a different set of rules than traditional cabs.

Hubbard believes the added congestion is increasing risks for pedestrians and cyclists, and points to a report released this summer which concluded that Toronto is the worst city in North America when it comes to commuting times.

But Uber Canada’s general manager says the 68,037 licences include anyone holding a licence, including those who don’t put their licences to use, drive only part-time, or drove for a couple of months and stopped.

Rob Khazzam also said some of those licences were issued to people who do most of their driving outside of the city, but want to be able to pick up a return fare on those occasions that they are dropping off a customer in Toronto.

“I think it's too early to say whether it’s contributing to or alleviating congestion,” said Khazzam, adding that while Uber is pleased with the regulations as they stand, the company is happy to participate in the review.

“The ride-sharing industry is really three years old. It’s really early in the game in Toronto,” he said. “I think it’s important to study the impact of these services over a longer period of time.”

While New York City recently decided to stop issuing PTC licences for a year -- 80,000 have been issued there so far -- Grant agrees it’s too early to say whether Toronto should do the same.

“We need to hear from as many people as possible on this industry to inform our decision,” he said.

Hubbard says the fact that New York City has a population of 8.5 million and has 80,000 licences and Toronto, with a population of 2.9 million has nearly 70,000, indicates the business has gotten out of hand here.

“We can’t have an unlimited number of vehicles on our streets,” she said.

Councillor Jim Karygiannis agrees. The vice-chair of the city’s licensing and standards committee says it’s time to start capping the number of PTC licences issued.

“There’s too many vehicles, too many people driving for Uber or Lyft, trying to make a buck, and at the end of the day they’re not even making a buck,” said Karygiannis.

Khazzam said Uber helps promote public transit use by making it possible for people to get to subway stations that otherwise take too long to get to. He pointed to UberPOOL and Express Pool, which put more than one passenger in each car, as services with the potential to reduce congestion.

But a report released in July by U.S.-based Schaller Consulting concluded that Uber and services like it are actually supplanting public transit, biking and walking in major North American cities. The report referenced studies done in 2017 and 2018 in New York City, Denver and Boston, but not Toronto.

The report points out that in the six years since companies like Uber first set up shop in San Francisco, their rapid growth has resulted in billions of additional miles driven on crowded city streets. Meanwhile, car ownership has not declined and is in fact growing across all large U.S. cities.

“Without public policy intervention, big American cities are likely to be overwhelmed with more automobility, more traffic and less transit and drained of the density and diversity which are indispensable to their economic and social well-being,” according to the report.

Khazzam says a strategy like congestion pricing -- on all vehicles -- is more likely to help than capping Uber licences.

“I think if people want to solve congestion in Toronto, they’re probably being naive if they think that putting a cap on ride-sharing is really going to deliver material changes,” he said.

Grant said a congestion study being performed as part of the review will hopefully shed light on how many active Uber and Lyft drivers there are.

Elements of the congestion study are already in place, including a data team made up of staff in Toronto’s transportation services and city planning divisions, and researchers from the University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute.

A third-party consultant will be hired to study the economic and social changes that have occurred since the introduction of the bylaw in July 2016.

While the review was originally slated to be conducted within a year of the bylaw being passed, Grant believes that original timeline was too ambitious.

“We’re going to be able to tell a better story than if we had rushed back in a year,” he said.

A report on the results of the review is expected at the Licensing and Standards Committee in the second quarter of 2019.