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D.C. Council Votes Tuesday on Uber Amendment to Taxi Modernization Bill

Photo by Judith Beermann
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick at Uber DC launch
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick at Uber DC launch

The D.C. City Council plans to vote Tuesday on a proposed amendment to the D.C. Taxi Modernization Bill that would make it illegal for Uber (the on-demand private car service launched late last year in D.C. and now in nine U.S. cities) to lower its prices or to offer a low cost service in any form.

On July 4, 2012, Uber announced a roll out of a lower cost service called Uber X for its all-hybrid fleet around the country, with the exception of D.C.

Uber
Uber

As Uber writes on its blog, “The Council’s intention is to prevent Uber from being a viable alternative to taxis by enacting a price floor to set Uber's minimum fare at today's rates and no less than 5 times a taxi's minimum fare. Consequently they are handicapping a reliable, high quality transportation alternative so that Uber cannot offer a high quality service at the best possible price. They want to make sure there is no viable alternative to a taxi in Washington D.C., and so on Tuesday (tomorrow!), the DC City Council is going to formalize that principle into law.”

Uber has asked anyone who is concerned to write or call D.C. councilmembers asking them to strike down the MINIMUM FARE language from the Uber Amendment.

Sign the petition here.

Phil Mendelson (Chairman), (202) 724-8064, pmendelson@dccouncil.us