Uber or Lyft part of your holiday plans? Prepare to be disappointed: Coquitlam mayor
Posted November 28, 2019 2:36 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
COQUITLAM (NEWS 1130) – Temper your hopes if you’re expecting to take Uber or Lyft over the holidays.
A mayor in the Tri-Cities is worried people across Metro Vancouver are expecting to use ride-hailing for transportation during next month’s festivities, and could make bad choices if those options aren’t available.
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart says he’s spoken with many who say they’ve downloaded popular ride-hailing apps fully expecting them to be available in December.
“They will find at two in the morning, there are no drivers available and some of them will get behind the wheel of their car because, at that point, they’re not making good choices,” he says. “It’s not going to be in place. There will not be enough drivers, particularly not in the suburbs.”
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He blames politicians in Victoria – including transportation minister Claire Trevena – for failing to follow through, and says the provincial government needs to stop making promises it can’t keep.
“The promise was that it would be available by 2017. Now, we’ve been assured that it will be in place. The minister has to know that, she has to know that it’s not going to be in place,” Stewart says.
“I simply don’t think it’s possible that we will have any quantity at all of ride-hailing supply in time for the Christmas season which started last week.”
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Even if ride-hailing does get approved by Christmas, he thinks companies will only have drivers available in Vancouver, leaving people in other parts of region out in the cold.
“People are accepting the word of government that ride-hailing will be in place. There will be dozens, perhaps even hundreds of ride-hail drivers December 31st – maybe – but they’ll be in Vancouver,” he says. “They’re not going to be in the suburbs, and the two or three that are in the suburbs are going to be overwhelmed.”
Stewart, who volunteers every year with Operation Red Nose, is expecting demand to be even higher this year because of misconceptions about ride-hailing.
He’s also accusing the provincial government of protecting the region’s existing taxi monopoly.
