Ride-Sharing services such as Uber and Lyft are once again in legal limbo within the city of Philadelphia.
Uber successfully appealed a cease and desist order and is now operating in the city without any type of legislation and Lyft is following its lead. Even though published reports say the Philadelphia Parking Authority still intends to enforce the ride-sharing ban despite Uber’s successful appeal. The PPA did not respond to our request for a statement.
Uber released a statement saying, “if Harrisburg does not act in the next two weeks, hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians could again lose access to affordable transportation and meaningful income opportunities.”
The c
ease and desist order comes after Uber and Lyft were briefly legalized in the city by state lawmakers this past July due to high-volume traffic from the Democratic National Convention. That deal expired on October 1, 2016.
Despite the risk of the PPA still enforcing the ban some Uber drivers, such as Naseem Sasso, aren’t phased. “I’m not necessarily afraid of getting caught” he says, “because I think its going to be pretty difficult for someone to just see me and say, ‘hey, you’re driving Lyft or you’re driving Uber, pull over right now.'”
Not all drivers feel the same. Uber driver Ronald Simmons says, “you know there were these stipulations that can be a fined up to a thousand dollars, I’m like I don’t want to take that chance.”
Unlike drivers, users of ride-sharing services don’t face any legal penalties. Which is good news for many Temple students like Mohamed Raddad. “Its way more convenient” he says, “it comes to where you wanna be at, they’ll come pick you up and stuff. It’s nice.”
Temple student Gabe Shertz says, “as a college student that’s probably the easiest way to get around if you’re going anywhere off-campus.”
The next step for Uber and Lyft is lawmakers in Harrisburg have committed to passing permanent ride-share legislation within the next week.
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