A Buffalo Common Council Member's proposed changes, designed to make it easier for ride-hailing companies like Lyft and Uber to eventually open in the city, has a fellow lawmaker urging peers to put up a roadblock.
Cities in New York State outside of New York City are not permitted to accommodate ride-hailing companies because of insurance issues. Legislators did not reach agreement in their previous session but are expected to resume the debate in 2017.
In the meantime, Buffalo Common Council Member Joseph Golombek believes the city should take proactive steps that, in anticipation of eventual approval by Albany, would allow Uber and Lyft the ability to quickly establish their respective companies in Buffalo. At Tuesday, Common Council Meeting, Golombek introduced proposed changes to city ordinances that would put ride-hailing companies under the same regulations as other livery businesses including taxis.
Fellow Common Council Member Christopher Scanlon, on Thursday, publicly expressed his opposition to the proposal. He suggests it should be up to state lawmakers to handle all regulatory matters at that level. That, in Scanlon's opinion, would resolve any potential local-level conflicts.
"I think it would be much too difficult to manage this, municipality to municipality," Scanlon said. "You've got borders in-between here. We'd have to figure out how that is managed. I think if you let the state regulate it, they can figure it out and handle it, just like states are doing it all across the country."
Scanlon also suggests the proposal, as it is written, too heavily favors the taxi industry.
Golombek, in response, says his proposal is a beginner template. It was immediately sent to committee, as he expected. Golombek says his peers, Scanlon included, are welcome to help fine-tune the proposed amendments while they await movement in Albany.
He stands by the concerns that promoted him to introduce his amendments.
"I want to make sure that we have several months, before the state would allow ride-share in New York State, to be able to tweak the system so that when Upstate allows ride-share, we're we're going to be ready to let them go ahead and run," Golombek said.
As for the pushback by his Council peer, Golombek told WBFO it is similar to the early debate over the allowance of food trucks in the City of Buffalo.
"Many of my colleagues were interested in food trucks. I ended up putting the legislation together and then we had a period of compromise," Golombek said. "I think that's what gave us a really, really good food truck ordinance."
Uber recently reported that more than 43,000 people across the state tried using its smartphone app to hire a ride on the eve of Thanksgiving but discovered the service was unavailable outside of New York City. Scanlon and Golombek agree on one point, that Albany should act soon to change this and allow the business to run throughout the state.
"There have been conversations taking place in Albany for a couple of years now, about how it would be regulated," Scanlon said. "Maybe that's the reason it hasn't been passed. Hopefully they can come to some sort of resolution and we can move forward and experience it in Western New York."
