This Week in Rideshare: Prop 22, Bikeshare, and Lawsuits.
Prop 22 passes, scooters give bikes a boost, and a win for disabled rights. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
MONDAY 11/2/20
On election eve, an Uber Engineer quit over pressure to support Prop 22. KQED explains:
“I felt like I was stripped of my voice because if I said anything there would be a conflict of interest or it would affect the financials of the company. That’s a weird place to be in. It’s something I didn’t want to normalize,” he said.
Finally, in the middle of the pandemic and without another job, he decided he would quit. At the end of September, he handed in his resignation.
TUESDAY 11/3/20
Election day! Prop 22 passed knocking AB5 out of the way. The Washington Post explains:
The state ballot measure, Proposition 22, will make drivers independent contractors according to California law. That supersedes a new law, known as A.B. 5, intended to grant drivers full employment, including minimum wage protections, health care and such benefits as unemployment and sick leave.
The gig companies defeated legislation to make drivers employees after running a record $200 million campaign to deny workers employment. Shares of Uber and Lyft surged as the stock market opened, jumping at least 15 and 18 percent, respectively, as it became clear the companies’ fears about the costs and business impacts of a potential employment model would not be realized.
WEDNESDAY 11/4/20
Turns out scooter usage isn’t killing bikeshare, it’s helping it. Geekwire explains:
In the six weeks before scooters launched in Seattle, e-bike ridership averaged about 1,843 riders per week, according to Lime. But in the six weeks after Lime launched scooters in Seattle, average weekly e-bike riders grew to 2,655.
THURSDAY 11/5/20
Uber reports the good and the bad: revenue dropped but business is picking up. CNBC reported:
On a conference call to discuss results, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said while the last 8 months had been tough, there were early signs that the company’s core mobility business would fully recover. He said Uber had improved its position in 11 of the top 15 markets in the United States during the third quarter including New York City, Chicago and Atlanta.
FRIDAY 11/6/20
In a win for disability rights advocates, a federal judge allows the Lyft lawsuit to proceed.
The lawsuit, filed in March, was initiated by the Independent Living Resources Center, a California non-profit disability rights organization, and a few other organizations and disabled individuals.
In their complaint, the organizations alleged that Lyft violated the ADA’s nondiscrimination requirements by offering wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) services that are more restrictive (longer wait time and less than 24-hours a day operation) than their non-WAV services and by failing to offer any WAV services in certain counties of the Bay Area.
However, the court ruled on Tuesday that the organizations had standing to sue Lyft. It concluded that the inability to access WAV services equivalent to those offered to other customers was a direct injury to the organizations which gave them standing to sue Lyft.
LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, gig workers, delivery and e-scooter accidents and injuries.
