Cambridge City Council today to discuss City lawsuit intended to shut down Uber

[keithn.livejournal.com]

For those of you who may not have heard, the City of Cambridge has recently filed a lawsuit in their second attempt to shut down Uber (the smartphone driven on-demand livery service). You can read more about the lawsuit and previous legal action (which was overturned by the State) here. I personally strongly oppose this lawsuit. I am an occasional Uber customer and do not want this innovative service taken away in the name of "consumer" protection (which is a transparent attempt at protecting local cabbies from competition).

This legal action was initiated by the City Manager on advice of the city legal department and consumer protection bureau. At least one City Councillor (Minka vanBeuzekom) opposes the lawsuit and she has added an agenda item to tonight's City Council meeting to discuss the lawsuit. Her goal is to urge the rest of City Council to oppose the lawsuit and she has invited anyone with an interest in this issue to attend and have their voices heard before the council.

The council meeting begins today at 5:30pm. For more information, please read http://checkthis.com/cjg5. This issue impacts consumers in the entire state and not just consumers within the city of Cambridge.

Comments

[tikva.livejournal.com]

I tell you what, if Uber winds up being cool about service dogs - I realize they are required by law to be cool about them, but that's never stopped the cab drivers - I will never take another cab here again. And I say this as the person who does the training at Cambridge taxi school letting the drivers-to-be know about service animals and the law. No wonder the Cambridge cabbies are scared of the competition - they should be.

(I am currently between dogs, so I have no data on whether or not Uber handles them well, but I'm sure keeping an ear to the ground about it!)

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

This is a stupid lawsuit. Uber is a really cool service. Who cares about a few local cabbies that will soon be replaced with self-driving taxis in a few years anyways?

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Competition and consumer choice is good for the city.

[smammy]

It's interesting that this comes down to essentially being a weights and measures issue... Same concept as having the state test gas pumps and grocery scales periodically. So, y'know, people don't get ripped off without knowing they're getting ripped off.