Uber and Lyft Shut Down in Pennsylvania; Thousands of Citizens' Lives Made Worse
Every day, thousands of people have a pleasant and useful experience using smartphone-app ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, and many drivers are able to make a living providing a useful service.
Alas, nearly every day, some bunch of petty jerks in local or state government try to do something to prevent those pleasant and useful experiences from happening, as readers of Hit and Run know all too well.
The latest such foolishness, out of Pennsylvania, reported by Pittsburgh Business Times:
Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. have been issued a cease-and-desist order and must immediately stop operations in Pittsburgh.
In an order granted Tuesday, Judges Mary D. Long and Jeffrey A. Watson said the companies cannot operate until they secure the appropriate authority from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissio….[N]o stay-of-order will be permitted while the matter is being reviewed by the commission.
The judges know they are being officious jackasses and making life worse, amazingly:
"We are not blind or deaf to the public opinion, at least in the Pittsburgh area, that the transportation needs of many individuals are not adequately met by currently certificated carriers. Nor are we unmindful of the potential benefits of the service proposed by Lyft," they write. "…Therefore, it may seem to some that our order here is contrary to the public interest in the ability of individuals to secure transportation in a timely manner."
It does seem that way, and it totally is!
Still, the judges maintain that a sophisticated system of realtime user satisfaction ratings is not sufficient to ensure, you know, the public safety. Only receiving a certificate from a state board of bureaucrats can do that. No one with a certificate can ever get in an accident or harm their passenger in any way, apparently.