Not everyone loves tech in San Francisco.
Cab drivers in the city took to the streets yesterday to protest against ride-sharing services such as Uber, Lyft and SideCar. Hundreds of cabbies circled the streets outside Civic Center blocking traffic and honking, while others carried signs and shouted slogans. Signs included “Techno Thieves” and “How will I feed my family when you take my money”
Here’s a video of the protest:
Although the position the taxi drivers are holding states that without proper insurance and regulation, the ridesharing apps and services are hazardous to the public, but really its about added competition. Earlier this month, Los Angeles cabbies protested similiarly against the rideshares, which leads to a new issue for Silicon Valley. What if technology doesn’t make everyone’s life better?
So far, Uber and Lyft haven’t responded directly to the protests, only taking to their blogs to share a recent decision from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which supports the continued legal operation of ride shares throughout the state of California. For now, its all legal. But at some point, they’re going to have to do a bit more than just a blog post to a) let the public know they’re doing good and not killing the work of honest cabbies and b) Keep the cabbies happy so that stuff like this doesn’t happen: (reported in TechCrunch)
Over the last year, taxi association leaders acknowledged that animosity has turned into violence from cab drivers against their ride-sharing competitors. Last week, a former Lyft driver told me one reason he switched to Uber was because Lyft’s signature pink car mustache encouraged attacks against him and his car. “You get physical confrontations between legal cab drivers and cabs who are trying to steal our fares,” explained Kornengold. “We don’t condone any physical attacks, but we’re all human and people get angry when they’re stolen from.”
