A bill in Salem would have main penalties for considered one of Portland’s prime transportation priorities.
Portland officers are involved about environmental and congestion impacts from transportation community corporations (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft, and have just lately got down to discover methods to mitigate a few of these impacts with transportation-related fees.
The City of Portland additionally prices a $.50 charge per TNC journey that the Portland Bureau of Transportation makes use of to fund packages like PDX WAV, which helps individuals with disabilities extra simply entry on-demand journey companies. This surcharge additionally helps fund a PBOT program that helps individuals driving for TNCs entry free authorized companies to settle potential disputes with the corporate they’re contracted with.
But Senate Bill 1558, launched to the Oregon Senate final week by the Joint Transportation Committee and scheduled for its first listening to in that committee tomorrow, may undermine these efforts. One supply near the problem reached out to us by way of e-mail to warn: “I think the transportation community should be very concerned about its effects.”
PBOT Interim Communications Director Hannah Schafer instructed us this morning she doesn’t suppose the bill will make it out of committee. While she didn’t if PBOT lobbied towards it, Schafer did categorical some issues. “The way that it was redefining rideshare could’ve had all sorts of implications for drivers,” she commented.
SB 1558 would create new laws for TNC and food-delivery corporations. It would require them to fulfill particular targets for the proportion of service miles supplied by zero-emission autos, prohibit per-person limits on rebates out there beneath electrical car rebate packages and preempt native governments from imposing per-trip prices until the cash generated from these prices would go towards regulation of rideshare or meals supply companies or funding EV infrastructure.
The Oregon EV Rebate program restricts companies from incomes rebates on greater than 10 electrical autos per 12 months. If this had been to be eradicated beneath this bill, companies like Lyft and Uber may obtain rebates on a vast quantity of EVs they buy for use in Oregon.
It would look like environmentally helpful to require Uber and Lyft to affect their fleets. While Uber and Lyft have been touted as environment friendly alternate options to proudly owning private autos, research have proven that they really could be worse for the setting. In response to those issues, TNC corporations have introduced zero-emissions targets that would theoretically be met by working solely electrical autos.
But as a way to make this occur, individuals who work for these rideshare corporations might endure.
Right now, the Oregon EV Rebate program restricts companies from incomes rebates on greater than 10 electrical autos per 12 months. If this had been to be eradicated beneath this bill, companies like Lyft and Uber may obtain rebates on a vast quantity of EVs they buy for use in Oregon.
Both Uber and Lyft function automotive rental packages that individuals who drive for these rideshare corporations can use as a substitute of driving their private automotive, however the fee isn’t low-cost. Contract workers, who’re already making precarious wages, pay about $200 every week to hire considered one of these vehicles, and subsequent earnings are usually not assured.
If TNCs had been incentivized to buy electrical autos to hire out so they may earn more cash in rebates, individuals driving for these platforms could also be inspired to take part on this rental choice with no assurance of financially stability. While working a rental fleet could be a good suggestion to cut back the quantity of non-public autos that individuals personal and transition to electrical, there should be extra laws that guarantee workers would be compensated pretty.
On prime of that, SB 1558 would additionally limit Oregon’s capacity to cost rideshare and meals supply corporations fees associated to congestion pricing efforts. This would intrude with a key purpose in PBOT’s proposed Pricing Options for Equitable Mobility (POEM) plan, which seeks to create new fees on driving that may cut back automotive use and lift income.
National research have proven that one of many causes rideshare corporations trigger a lot site visitors congestion is due to “deadheading,” which refers back to the time an individual driving a automotive for Uber or Lyft spends with no passenger within the automotive, circling town for locations the place they could get a buyer.
Since these TNC corporations don’t should pay drivers for the time they spend looking for passengers, they actively encourage this follow by flooding the driving force provide so clients can snap their fingers and get a journey. This wastes a variety of gasoline and area on the road. It additionally wastes time for individuals driving for these corporations, who spend giant swaths of unpaid time on the highway burning oil.
If PBOT charged a brand new charge for utilizing TNC or supply corporations, as is being proposed within the POEM plan, this might encourage individuals to hunt alternate technique of transportation, and the income generated from this toll may go into funding transportation initiatives. SB 1558 would severely limit the advantages of any charge system for such companies, and likewise restrict what the present $.50 surcharge can be utilized for.
One instance of a program that could possibly be used to assist restrict congestion and carbon emissions brought on by “deadheading” is Seattle’s Transportation Network Company Minimum Compensation Ordinance. This ordinance requires corporations like Uber and Lyft to pay drivers utilizing a charge construction that takes into consideration the time they spend ready for clients. This disincentives saturating the market with people who find themselves driving for TNCs, serving to each the staff and the setting.
Though sources say the TNC-related provisions are prone to be stripped out of SB 1558, the truth that these points had been into account in any respect signifies the place future conversations would possibly lead.
Hannah Schafer in PBOT’s communications workplace says they’ll proceed to trace discussions in Salem about TNC laws, particularly when sure payments might affect the company’s backside line and/or transportation and local weather change targets .
“We have a lot of experience and knowledge on this topic,” Schafer says. “We’ll continue to keep an eye on things going forward.”
SB 1558 is the primary merchandise on the agenda for Thursday’s 8:00 am assembly of the Joint Transportation Committee.
Taylor has been a BikePortland’s workers author since November 2021. She has additionally written for Street Roots and Eugene Weekly. Contact her at taylorgriggswriter@gmail.com