Legal Trend: State Supreme Court Upholds Statewide Ride Share

State: Georgia

The legal claim giving rise to the lawsuit: taxi drivers claimed that the medallions they must purchase are diminished in value by the statewide ride share statute

The Georgia Supreme Court: “taxicab drivers do not have a constitutionally protected “exclusive right to provide rides originating in the city limits which charged fares based on time and mileage.”

WABE Atlanta NPR | Georgia Supreme Court Upholds Law Allowing Uber, Lyft Services

Local Trend. Traffic Safety and Mobility Ordinances for Ride Share.

City: San Francisco

The municipal ordinance’s purpose: traffic safety & congestion

The traffic woes the ordinance wants to cure:

  • double parked ride share cars
  • swarms of ride share cars tackling urban streets to the detriment of other drivers

The muncipal ordinance proposal to begin as a pilot program icnluding:

  • data sharing by ride share
  • agreements on pick up and drop off procedures
  • possible curb designations for ride share stops

San Francisco Examiner | Mayor Lee to tackle Uber, Lyft traffic congestion through pilot program

 

3 Steps . 2 North Texas Cities Connecting Via High Speed Rail.

Dallas and Ft. Worth are moving forward with a high speed rail line connecting the two cities. This is how they’re doing it:

  • Creating a  local government corporation with Dallas, an entity that would govern inter-city passenger rail service
  • The local government corporation would own and manage the rail line​
  • The Local government corporation would then control creation, funding and actual construction of the line

The North Central Texas Council of Governments is coordinating the project.

It is expected to be up and running by 2023 or 2024 and travel time would be 15 to 20 minutes.

Mass Transit | TX: Fort Worth Takes Big Step Toward HSR Link with Dallas

23 States Ponder Fee on Hybrid of Electric Cars. Gas Tax Revenues Down. Fees Up.

The states that are moving to a fee based transportation funding system:

  • California fee on electric and hybrid cars
  • Tennessee fee on electric or hybrid cars
  • South Carolina fee on electric and hybrid cars
  • Oregon shifting to a road use fee

States considering a fee on electric, hybrid cars to offset gas tax reductions:

  • Maine, Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, and Massachusetts

States that increased registration fees on electric or hybrid cars:

  • Colorado, Georgia (which charges $200, more than any other state), Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

Governing | As Gas Tax Revenues Decline, Fees on Fuel-Efficient Cars Pop Up

Legal TREND. Are ride shares a platform or a transportation company? One Court expected to call a spade a spade.

The Court: The European Union’s highest court

The issue- is ride share a platform or a transportation company? Legal pundits expect the court to rule that ride share companies are transportation companies.

What will be the impact? Stricter regulations apply to transportation companies

Why are pundits now paying attention to this? “An influential advisor to the court, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar, has published his opinion on the case” and that opinion is not good for ride share.

Tech Crunch | Europe’s top court leaning towards dealing Uber a big regulatory blow

LEGAL TREND. Private Railroads. Pre-condemnation Survey Access. Enjoined. What does it means?

 A legal fight between Texas Central Rail and Grimes County has created an injuntion to ” permanently enjoin [Texas Central Rail]  from performing surveys or other studies which damage, alter or impair county maintained rights of way,”

What Grimes County says it does: prevents Texas Central Rail from exercising precondemantion surveys  & Texas Central Rail does not have eminent domain authority

What Texas Central Rail says it does: Surveys will continue, as they have, and no damage will be incurred by the county

Navasota Examiner News | Judges rules in favor of county, against TCP

Lege Trend. Anatomy of a Transportation Funding Deal.

State: Colorado

The 2 competing transportation funding mechanisms:

  • Senate Bill 267
    • creates  20-year bond program, $1.8 billion towards critical infrastructure
  • Senate Bill 303
    • uses existing taxes and a $3.5 billion bond program to pay for roads and highways

The Compromise:

  • require that at least 25%of the bond funds go toward projects in rural Colorado, with county populations of 50,000 or less
  • add in $30 million allocated to rural districts over three years.
  • School funding increase is funded by aising marijuana taxes.

Colorado Springs Gazette | Compromise bill to boost Colorado transportation funding appears headed for finish line

Lege Trend: The Idaho Stop for Bicycles Heads toward codification

State: California

What’s an Idaho stop for a bicycle? Its what the rest of the world calls a California stop. A bicylce can roll through a red light, treating the stop or red light as a yield.

Have other states allowed for an Idaho stop? yes, Idaho

What support is there for allowing the roll through stop for bicycles?

  • bicycle injuries in Idaho declined by 14.5% the year after the law took effect
  • no evidence of an increase over time
  • increases bicycle traffic efficiency

California’s Assembly Bill 1103 (2017)

Sacramento Bee | Should California allow bicyclists to roll through stop signs?