Massachusetts Governor Introduces Bill To Regulate Uber, Lyft

jfruh writes: The "wild west" days of ridesharing services may be coming to an end. The governor of Massachusetts has proposed a bill that would regulate Uber, Lyft, and their rivals in the state. Among the new rules: ridesharing services would have to run background checks on their drivers and keep a roster of active drivers; vehicles would need to have some external marker indicating that they're a ridesharing car; and drivers would need to hold at $1 million worth of insurance when transporting passengers.

Comments

Re:Yeah....

[Dutch Gun]

I saw no mention of rationed or limited licenses when skimming through the article and law. The provisions seemed rather common sense to me when reading through them: Maintaining a list of drivers, criminal background checks, sufficient insurance for commercial purposes, visible external marker on the car, yearly safety inspections, minimum age of 21, and a license fee for the privilege of this oversight, of course.

I don't think this is a bad thing at all. Every other business that deals with transporting the public is licensed and regulated in order to adhere to reasonable safety standards. Uber is apparently supporting this legislation as well. I think they feel that it's a good thing to be officially recognized by the state as a legitimate business. It's certainly better than existing in a grey area and getting fined or having lawsuits tossed at you.