PPA is Full of It!
In case you missed it last week, the PPA announced a truce with Uber. The PPA will cease all operations to fine UberX and UberPool drivers and activities related to sting operations where UberX drives have seen their cars impounded through September 30th.
This was announced last week at a joint press conference with Vince Fenerty, executive director of the PPA, and UberPhilly’s Jon Feldman.
What gives?
For one, suburban people are inconvenienced by SEPTA’s removal of a third of their regional rail trains because of issues with load-bearing beams. Somewhere there’s a Beavis or Butthead joke in there.
Second, the DNC is coming to town.
Suburban people are inconvenienced and prominent political people are coming to town. That’s all you need to know.
Fenerty said that he expected the announcement to bring more drivers to Philly and that this would help the city “shine” under a national spotlight.
What about the public safety issues that UberX drivers posed to the passengers? Just last year, as critics charged that the PPA simply wanted in on the financial end of UberX, Fenerty held press conferences denying these accusations. Instead, he claimed that ride-sharing services like UberX posed public safety risks to the citizens of Philadelphia because there was no way to ensure the drivers were properly trained or had undergone any background checks.
In his own words from an Op-Ed piece that Fenerty wrote back in February 2015:
The PPA’s primary concern has always been and continues to be public safety. Because of the current absence of ride-sharing regulation, there is no assurance that any of the UberX or Lyft drivers have been trained or have had their driving records and backgrounds checked for any prior criminal convictions. There is also no way of knowing if any of the vehicles used by these non-trained drivers have been inspected or if they are even insured.
As far as I know, being close to people who drive for Uber, nothing has changed in the way UberX screens its drivers. They always have and continue to have to provide documentation that their cars are inspected and insured and they had to submit to a background check before driving was permitted.
Reports are that PhillyUber has agreed to pay a portion of the fines it currently owes to the PPA. And, there is a bill expected to pass the PA State Senate after the summer that will allow UberX to operate in Philly. Philly Mag has reported that the bill is expected to generate $4m in taxes that would go to the PPA.
And that’s what this is all about. It’s about filling the PPA coffers and nothing to do with safety.
If safety was an issue why would the PPA suddenly allow local residents and DNC tourists to ride with these “so-called” untrained drivers, who hadn’t gone through appropriate screening, in “unsafe” vehicles. If the PPA concerns were valid then they’d be greenlighting people riding with sketchy characters in jalopies.
The reality is that this was never about public safety and always about the PPA getting a piece of the financial actions.
The PPA is unelected, unaccountable, and full of sh*t. Their recent agreement with UberPhilly proves just that. Hopefully Councilwoman Helen Gym gains momentum on her call for an audit of the PPA because that jawn is out of control.