City council’s plan to regulate Uber in London has hit a political pothole, giving hope to traditional taxi drivers that a “double standard” in the rules can be eliminated.

Drivers with the digital dispatcher, whose app is used worldwide, aren’t required under London’s proposed regulations to install dashboard cameras — a demand made of traditional cab drivers.

Now, representatives of established taxi firms want council to take the unexpected debate detour as a chance to change that, for the sake of fairness and public safety.

Uber has said its drivers don’t need cameras because passengers are picked up through an app, not by curbside hails, so both parties know each other’s names and some personal details.

But city staff say they’ve created fake profiles as Uber users and successfully been given rides by drivers.

And Roger Caranci of the London Taxi Association, which has fought Uber's bylaw-busting style for 18 months, says there are circumstances when strangers ride together.

“People who don’t know each other pile into a cab (when) they’re at a party” going to a bar or night club, he said. “It’s troubling.”

Adds Caranci, “The one thing we want changed (in the proposed rules) is cameras. We can live with the rest.”

City council in November approved bylaw changes that will essentially legalize Uber, whose drivers have faced threats of fines if caught by city officials.

Under the planned regulations, council was OK with letting Uber drivers, often part-timers, operate without interior cameras.

In December, the risks critics say Uber can pose hit close to home, when one of its drivers here, Islam Soliman, was charged with sexual assault after a 21-year-old London woman contacted police following a trip to Southwest Middlesex. That appears not to have swayed anyone on council, despite the concerns it raised with bureaucrats who oversee the taxi industry.

Then earlier this week, council’s community and protective services committee failed to endorse the new taxi bylaw, leaving it in limbo until council’s meeting Tuesday.

pmaloney@postmedia.com

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