Friday, December 12, 2014

New York Taxi and Limousine Commision still playing dodge ball regarding the public safety menace posed by drivers using ehail driver apps.

Now I can understand the TLC doing this. It´s historically headed by political hacks

, incompetents, spineless would be do gooders and outright crooks. Now there is the added explanation that lucrative golden parachutes are handed out to TLC honchos by the multi billion dollar ehail app companies.

I can understand the City Council too- On the take, taking snoozes-

And then there is the plain and simple reason that the taxi industry itself, from Bhairavi Desai to Evgeny Friedman do not want to address the safety menace head on. They are playing by Marquis of Queensbury rules and act like they are in a refereed boxing match while the haters are fully militarized in the political sense.

Back on November 30 I asked the Taxi and Limousine Commission for the authority under which Uber and other taxi hail app companies continue to operate in spite of the expiration of the pilot program and the Commission´s last minute retreat on its plan to finalize and thoroughly legalize the apps without any serious look at the safety menace they pose to the public, in spite of the issuance of a ¨Final Report¨ that indicated that the ehail pilot program had been a failed experiment and most importantly in spite of the studied dodging and non addressing of serious questions about the public safety hazards  posed by the use of the driver app programs by taxi and livery drivers on the streets of New York City.

Well it turns out they did renew the pilot program until next May 30. Please read on...

Uber FOIL Request


Conwell, Christine (TLC) Conwellc@tlc.nyc.gov

Dec 5 (7 days ago)
to me
Dear Mr. Weixel,

The Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) is in receipt of your e-mail correspondence dated November 30, 2014 with the subject:

“Is Ubrer even legal in NYC? Freedom of information requtest has been filed.a”

In your e-mail, you did not indicate that you were seeking any records. Please specify what type of records you are requesting and re-submit your request within 30 days. If you do not re-submit your request, your request will be deemed closed.

Thank you,

Christine Conwell
Assistant General Counsel
New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission
33 Beaver Street 22nd Floor New York, NY 10004
212.676.1177 phone
Conwellc@tlc.nyc.gov

Unauthorized disclosure of legally privileged or otherwise confidential information is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

 But under seperate cover she sent me this (among other but non relevant texts.) :

NEW YORK CITY TAXI AND LIMOUSINE COMMISSION
RESOLUTION EXTENDING PILOT PROGRAM TO EVALUATE ELECTRONIC
HAIL APPLICATIONS
May 15, 2014
The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (“Commission” or “TLC”) hereby
extends the E-Hail App Pilot Program, approved by resolution of the Commission on
December 13, 2012, as amended on February 21, 2013 (as so approved and amended, the
“Pilot”), pursuant to section 52C of the Commission's rules, to test and evaluate smartphone
electronic hail applications that can be used to request taxicab service. 
electronic hail applications that can be used to request taxicab service.
The TLC proposed the Pilot because a number of companies had approached it about
introducing 1) services that would allow taxicab passengers (“Passengers”) within New York
City to arrange on-demand taxi service through an electronic hail application (“E-Hail App”)
which resides on a smartphone, and 2) services allowing Passengers to pay for their fare
using a smartphone (“E-Payment”).
As E-Hail Apps have emerged, TLC has continued to explore options that will encourage
innovation and provide new and desired services to Passengers. The Pilot is solely for the
purposes of assisting the TLC in learning about the feasibility of E-Hail Apps and EPayment.

Since the Commission approved the Pilot, eight (8) separate companies have begun the
review and testing process required to be an authorized provider. Two providers were
authorized to begin participating in the Pilot in late April and early May of 2013, the first of
which was approved on April 26, 2013, and the second on May 1, 2013. However, the Pilot
was interrupted due to the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court issuing
a Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”) on May, 1, 2013, enjoining the TLC from taking
action to implement the Pilot. The TRO was lifted on June 6, 2013. A third entity was
approved to participate in the Pilot following the lifting of the TRO in 2013, and a fourth
participant was approved in April of 2014. The TLC believes that a one year extension of the
Pilot will allow it to better assess the use of E-Hail Apps and E-Payment.
This resolution is to extend the duration of the Pilot for one (1) year through May 31, 2015,
in order to continue to accumulate additional data on E-Hail Apps and E-Payment and to
permit a full and complete evaluation of the Pilot. All requirements of the original Pilot
continue and will remain in effect including the reporting and evaluation criteria contained in
the resolutions approving the Pilot except that the quarterly reports required by Section 15(c)
of the resolutions approving the Pilot shall, in the second year of the Pilot, only be prepared
and provided semi-annually, but otherwise shall contain all information specified in the
original resolutions.