Petition garners 1,200 signatures advocating for the ridesharing company.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Uber reacted to the Eugene City Council’s decision by launching an online petition.
The hashtag #EugeneNeedsUber cropped up and 1,200 people had signed the petition as of late Wednesday night, the Register Guard reports:
It calls on the City Council to “create regulations that include the unique nature of ridesharing.”
“The bottom line is this: Slapping old regulations on a new industry does not make the public safer and only jeopardizes ridesharing services in the city,” Brooke Steger, Uber’s regional general manager, wrote in an online post.
Olympic runner Nick Symmonds, who has tweeted his support for Uber before, weighed in on the matter.
Dear @KittyforMayor, @uber is not a taxi company. Please stop treating them like one. #EugeneNeedsUber
— Nick Symmonds (@NickSymmonds) February 11, 2015
In Portland, the Private For-Hire Transportation Board of Review voted to greatly increase the number of cabs allowed on the streets.
The board agreed to let 293 more taxis into rotation — adding to the 460 currently in rotation.
The Willamette Week reported on the move to help cab companies stay competitive with Uber’s impending fulltime operation in the city:
The vote today by the city’s Private For-Hire Transportation Board of Review signals a huge shift for the city’s entrenched taxi market. Portland currently licenses only 460 cabs, far less than most similarly sized cities.
The final decision now moves to City Council, where Mayor Charlie Hales and City Commissioner Steve Novick are advocating for new licenses to challenge Uber, the transportation app that invaded Portland last year and is expected to return in April.
In January, Portland’s cab companies held a demonstration to urge city hall for consideration — including more licensed taxis — as officials weighed new rules for Uber and ridesharing companies.
