Ridesharing victory over cronyism

This session, a bill was introduced to the Illinois General Assembly that would impose draconian regulations on Uber and Lyft’s ridesharing programs. This legislation was crafted by the cab unions with the intention of drastically increasing regulation so as to maintain monopoly control over the urban transportation market. In addition to stifling the free market,...

This session, a bill was introduced to the Illinois General Assembly that would impose draconian regulations on Uber and Lyft’s ridesharing programs. This legislation was crafted by the cab unions with the intention of drastically increasing regulation so as to maintain monopoly control over the urban transportation market. In addition to stifling the free market, this legislation would pass on significantly higher ridesharing costs to consumers, along with greater barriers to entry for entrepreneurs, future job-creators.

Uber and Lyft ridesharing programs offer innovative transportation options that connect car drivers to passengers in a low-cost, easily accessible manner. The legislation originally brought before the General Assembly would have restricted rideshare programs from traveling to and/or from any airports in the Chicago metropolitan area, mandated different pricing, and increased costs through a litany of other burdensome, restrictive regulations.

To counter this detrimental initiative, Illinois Policy Action built a coalition with other interested parties and immediately began lobbying lawmakers about the dangers of this bill. Lawmakers’ email inboxes were flooded with tens of thousands of messages from Illinoisans demanding that ridesharing be left alone. And it’s easy to see why – Uber and Lyft offer an option that comes at a lower cost with higher quality, relative to the hyper-regulated, unionized taxicab cartel.

Unfortunately, the political culture of Illinois has long favored cronyism over the competition that arises when markets are free – so instead of the taxicab industry demanding that lower regulations be imposed on their cut of the Chicago market, they took to the halls of the Statehouse in Springfield and pushed lawmakers to impose unnecessary burdens on their competition.

But the voice of the residents of Illinois was heard, loud and clear. Our fight to defend the freedom to operate a business that creates value proved effective; the legislation was radically amended, removing almost all of the negative, politically motivated aspects of the bill.

Even though the bill that passed is not perfect, the work of Illinois Policy Action – connecting Illinoisans to their elected officials on legislation that impacts their lives – prevailed.

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