Ridesharing Becomes Illegal Again on Saturday

It’s been a good three months for Lyft, Uber, and other ridesharing companies in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is the only county in the state where ridesharing is not fully legal, but for the past three months, these companies have operated under a temporary, three-month agreement that started just in advance of the Democratic National Convention. Lyft, Uber, & co. could operate in Philly, as long as they paid a one percent ride tax to the Philadelphia Parking Authority, or PPA, which regulates taxi and limo operations in the city. Philadelphia schools benefited from two thirds of that tax; the PPA pocketed the rest. The detente comes to an end on Saturday, October 1st when the agreement is scheduled to end.

As of Saturday, ridesharing will again become illegal in Philadelphia, thanks to the end of a temporary agreement.  (REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach)

Despite the fact that the agreement has been profitable and the additional fact that Philadelphia residents are overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing ridesharing, there seems to be no legislative talk of either extending the agreement or fully legalizing these services. What will most likely happen is that Lyft and Uber will go back to operating the way they did before the agreement was put in place: illegally. Residents and visitors will still be able to get their rides, but the schools will not get any funding from it.

“At this point, I don’t think there are serious conversations happening about extending the temporary agreement,” said Ben Waxman, press secretary for state Sen. Vincent Hughes, who helped spearhead the temporary agreement. Waxman says that Hughes is in favor of a permanent ridesharing law that will allow the services to operate legally and has helped to draft the appropriate legislation, but that potential law may or may not be addressed by the end of the current legislative session.

Chelsea Harrison, Lyft’s senior policy communications manager, told the Philly Voice that the temporary agreement brought in “tens of thousands of dollars from Lyft alone” to city schools. In my opinion, I think it’s a real shame that the schools are set up to become the losers here.