Online Carpooling Service Fined In Canada

TechDirt is reporting on a disappointing development out of Canada. An Ontario transportation board has fined PickupPal, a Web-based service for arranging carpools, because a local bus company complained of the competition. (TechCrunch apparently first broke the story.) "[The transportation board has] established a bunch of draconian rules that any user in Ontario must follow if it uses the service — including no crossing of municipal boundaries — meaning the service is only good within any particular city's limits. It's better than being shut down completely, and the service can still operate elsewhere around the world, but this is yet another case where we see regulations, that are supposedly put in place to improve things for consumers, do the exact opposite."

Comments

Re:No sense...

[ShieldW0lf]

So, for example, some people think that the reason they didn't implement direct democracy is because they didn't have the practical means to disseminate information, vote, etc. This is not true. The American founders didn't WANT direct democracy, because historically that had inevitably DESTROYED the tyranny of the RULING CLASS. They wanted educated, worldly men FROM THE RULING CLASS LIKE THEMSELVES to make the decisions ... but they ENTICED the people BY ALLOWING THEM to choose WHICH OF THE PREAPPROVED, educated, worldly men FROM THE RULING CLASS made those decisions.

Fixed that for you.