From left: Lorenzo Gomez III, Julie Campbell, Lyft Launch Director Will Farino, Kara Gomez and Ryan Salts welcome Lyft to Geekdom. Photo courtesy of Geekdom.

Dear Chief McManus:

SAPD Chief McManus in his office at the San Antonio Public Safety Headquarters. Photo by Iris Dimmick.
SAPD Chief William McManus in his office at the San Antonio Public Safety Headquarters. Photo by Iris Dimmick.

You know I admire you and your eight-year run as San Antonio Police Chief. You’ve been a great leader and a great role model. No scandal, no bad moves. It’s so refreshing to see a uniformed officer who is fit for duty. And when there is trouble, God forbid, whether it’s an officer down or tragedy striking one of our city’s families, you show up, on the scene alongside the rank and file officers.

I don’t understand your out-of-character move to try and shut down Lyft, one of the coolest, most innovative transportation solutions to ever hit San Antonio. It’s only been operating here one week and it isn’t even charging its customers yet. I could hardly believe my ears when I heard you threatening to arrest Lyft drivers if they persist in their unlicensed, unsanctioned ride share activities. Didn’t you see the congratulatory launch message from our friends at Geekdom? These guys are for real. We are not their first city.

Lyft is a transportation solution, and it’s also a job creator. Click here to see how qualified drivers are helping make ends meet by signing up. These drivers undergo criminal background checks, must have good driving records and current insurance. Lyft supplements that insurance. Have we done more to vet our local taxi drivers?

Lyft_logo

Lyft passengers can rate their drivers, and drivers can rate their passengers. Every ride, every financial transaction is stored in a database. Riders and drivers hook up via an app, so it’s all there if anyone needs to see it. No way can law enforcement trace that kind of data in the event of an incident with a city-licensed taxi.

The co-founders, Logan Green and John Zimmer are one of those amazing overnight, tech startup stories, but truth is they’ve been at this for a long time. Lyft is only a few years old but its success has enabled it to spread quickly from its base in San Francisco. Without going into too much detail, their concept is simple: Millennials, who live on their smart phones, prefer sensible, low-cost transit to buying an expensive car they can’t afford and that burns more carbon than they care to contribute to the atmosphere. If only us Baby Boomers held ourselves to such high ideals.

Take the Millennial mindset and marry it with GPS technology, social media sites and a well-designed app, and you have a business that solves customers’ problems and meets their needs.

That’s why members of LOOP, the center city young professional organization, which attracts bright, young future leaders, issued a statement protesting the challenge to Lyft. Here’s the group’s statement:

“The Board of LOOP would like to acknowledge the importance of transportation options in San Antonio in light of the San Antonio Police Department’s recent decision to suspend operations of the ride-sharing service, Lyft. The company’s launch on Friday marked a new triumph for the city in its fight against drunk and impaired driving, a costly act that saw 25,158 alcohol-related crashes that resulted in 8,702 serious injuries and 1,022 deaths in Texas last year.

“With an influx of people due to flood downtown next month for the annual Fiesta celebration, LOOP urges the City of San Antonio, San Antonio Police Department and Texas Department of Transportation to reexamine the existing city ordinance that may prohibit safe, reliable, donation-based transportation companies from operating. Residents of San Antonio deserve more alternative modes of transportation, and the LOOP Board supports innovative technological solutions that have been proven to be safe, efficient, and cost-effective in other markets.”

Chief, everyone I have spoken to this afternoon and evening wonders what motivated you to take such forceful action given your cool demeanor. Are the taxicab owners pressuring the City? In a city with too few transit choices, cabs too often are part of the problem. I don’t particularly blame the owners or drivers. In a city of sprawl, where cabbies come only when called or if you happen to be at a downtown hotel or the airport, supply and demand seldom balance the way they do in more densely populated urban areas.

We need creative solutions like Lyft to attack some of the very big transportation problems in this city which get little attention because only crisis motivates people to act: air quality that worsens by the year, and highways clogged with commuter traffic moving at a rush hour crawl in the only Texas city that has no form of light rail.

How are we going to make San Antonio a more walkable city, safer for cyclists and pedestrians, unless we start taking some of the vehicles off the road, most of which carry exactly one person: the driver?

How are we going to get people to stop climbing behind the wheel after they’ve had too much to drink in a city that celebrates drinking? Chief, you had the backbone to challenge the Conservation Society when you first came to town and realized NIOSA was a drunken mess tied into a Fiesta fundraiser. Your campaign to enforce drunk driving laws has saved lives. Bravo!

Lyft screenshot courtesy of Iris Dimmick.
Lyft screenshot.

People under the influence who call Lyft present no danger to others.  Lyft causes no harm, at least not that I’ve read about anywhere it operates. It’s even bigger competitor, Uber, supposedly has plans to also come to San Antonio. It won’t cause any harm, either. Check out Uber’s founder, Travis Kalanick, whose company is now valued at more than $3 billion and is funded by the likes of Google.

These entrepreneurs and their companies are major league disrupters who scare the crap out of complacent businesses threatened by change. All the more reason to welcome them.

The entrepreneurs who built these fast-growing companies have been successful because they meet a real need. They knew from the get-go that they couldn’t sustain success unless their business model included passenger security. Car share doesn’t work if sexual predators can play. That’s why drivers are carefully vetted, and frankly, that’s why we aren’t reading nightmare stories about car share programs gone bad. If we ban Lyft we are solving a problem that doesn’t exist.

Texas has already allowed one entrenched lobby – the automobile dealers – to prevent Tesla vehicles from being sold directly to consumers. That short-sightedness could cost us the Tesla battery factory the company hopes to build here or in some other Sun Belt city and the 6,500 good paying jobs it would create.

Let’s take a step back and ask ourselves: What’s the simplest, quickest way to make sure these companies have figured out the public safety and security thing. Let’s allow Lyft to operate through a probationary period, and if all goes well, let them stay.

*Featured/top image: From left: Lorenzo Gomez, Julie Campbell, Lyft Launch Team Manager Will Farino, Kara Gomez and Ryan Salts welcome Lyft to Geekdom. Photo courtesy of Geekdom.

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Robert Rivard, co-founder of the San Antonio Report who retired in 2022, has been a working journalist for 46 years. He is the host of the bigcitysmalltown podcast.

23 replies on “Dear Chief McManus: Let’s Welcome Lyft to San Antonio”

  1. This is great Bob. I am really pleased with your stance on this and the excessive spending issues. Keep up the great work. Lead the charge of freedom and free enterprise that has been so demonized.

  2. Uber and Lyft are always my first choices for getting around during visits to San Francisco and Los Angeles. I’ve always been impressed by the stories of the drivers and their excitement and loyalty to their companies. In each city they have drawn the scorn of officials and the taxi industry. My trips with the two have been 100% better than those with any regular taxi I have taken. They have experience in handling the criticism and pressure. Their popularity will ensure they succeed.

  4. Chief McManus is overstepping his authority just a bit is he not? Lyft and their main competitor Uber and both ride-share companies, not Taxi services. How can Lyft violate an ordinance that does not apply. The city would have to draft a completely new ordinance just to be able to regulate ride sharing.

    As far as I know the language in the ordinance is boilerplate carried over by other cities so I was thinking about Chicago. Chicago let Lyft continue to run within a “regulatory vacuum” (according to a recent article) so a reasonable person would assume that the same would apply in this situation.

    Whether the Chief is being pressured by the incumbent or he’s got some time to waste, it really doesn’t matter. There are no provisions (as far as I know) that deal with ride-sharing companies in either the Municode, DMV or Texas law except for the section which reads –

    Sec. 215.073. VEHICLES FOR HIRE. The municipality may license, fix the charges or fares made by, or otherwise regulate any person who owns, operates, or controls any type of vehicle used on the public streets or alleys of the municipality for carrying passengers or freight for compensation.

    The municipality may, keyword may. They have not done so. They have not indicated in the municipal codes that they will be regulating ride sharing. I have seen references to Taxicabs in the text, not ride sharing.

    The State of Ilinois recently introduced a proposal that would require ride sharing services to share an equal footing with taxi companies in order to better regulate the business. The City of San Antonio has done nothing to regulate ride sharing as of yet.

    The California Public Utilities Commission has even created a new category for the business called The Transportation Network Company just to be able to actually enforce the law because there is a clear difference between the dynamics of a cab company and a “Transportation Network Company”. It is clear that the City of San Antonio should do the same in order to justify the cease and desist letter.

    http://articles.redeyechicago.com/2014-03-25/news/48568293_1_rideshare-industry-taxi-companies-lyft

    http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=11508

    http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2014/03/27/324604.htm

    http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/LG/htm/LG.215.htm

    http://www.suntimes.com/news/26478722-761/ride-sharing-companies-fight-back.html

    http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/Enforcement/TNC/

    http://business.time.com/2013/09/21/dont-be-afraid-to-share-ridesharing-companies-lyft-sidecar-uberx-get-official-ok-in-california/

  5. I have never, ever, seen these “Yellow Cabs”. What are they? I just was not aware of their existence. I drive everywhere. I have only taken the bus one time. I think I would really enjoy a service like Lyft.

    1. They are not yellow cabs. You summon them through an app on your smartphone. You can distinguish Lyft, however, because the cars have a pink mustache on the dashboard.

  7. I would rather see someone use Lyft then another car on 1604! Mass transit in this city makes it impossible for many people to use it to go to work if they don’t want to take 3 buses and spend 2 hours on what is a 15 minute drive because of the existing bus routes. I live 7 miles from work and it takes me 15-20 minutes to drive to work every day (going against the majority of rush hour traffic – if I took a bus it would take me several hours. Having grown up in the Northeast where we had a wide variety of readily available mass transit, I think San Antonio can use any type of mass transit it can get to relieve traffic.

    1. I still don’t get it. How does the ordinance apply? I know that they’re stretching the law for money. It’s all for money. If they can’t get enough money out of taxing you to death then they’ll permit you to death.

      How about this – Create a new app that runs on the Tor network and establish virtual bus stops that change locations frequently. You can add people through invitation and the app will update the list of stop locations as well as provide a list of “Fun Stops” and “Frequent Destinations”. It shall be called The Transport Bay or BIT Transport or KanyeTrans.

      My point – People will find a way around the problem of regulation. The whole issue with lyft is regulatory capture. It happened with Tesla, it is happening with Google Fiber and it is happening here with lyft. There is no need for it in this economy and especially in a city with a failed transportation system.

      Regulation exists to protect the public. There is no real protection in this case.

      http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/10/10/should_ridesharing_be_illegal.html

      http://www.geekwire.com/2014/enough-nonsense-ride-sharing-tesla-sluggish-sluggish-law/

      http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/preventing-regulatory-capture-special-interest-influence-and-how-limit-it

      http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/01/who-wants-competition-big-cable-tries-outlawing-municipal-broadband-in-kansas/

      1. I am not sure why my comment ended up here when I clicked on the “Add Yours” button on the top of the comments section after I had cancelled the reply.

  9. Within the past couple months I’ve had a cousin & a friend say that choosing to ride a taxi took a total of 2 hours for pick up & drop off. Not counting time spent in the taxi. Both said they would never use a taxi cab again. No one wants to waste 2 hours of their night waiting for a taxi when they could use a service like LYFT.

  12. It’s time to update the antiquated city ordinance to serve the greater good! Isn’t that what our laws are supposed to do?

  13. For a city with such a terrible DWI problem, it’s amazing how difficult they make it to enact systems that would help alleviate the problem. Maybe Susan Reed and SAPD have started to view DWI as a revenue source instead of a problem we need to solve?

  14. And so the Lyft/Uber marketing machine begins in San Antonio. Brace yourself, an onslaught of social media attacks, robo-calls, and paid lobbyists is coming.

  15. I have not completely read the article, but what I have read tells me that from the segment on the TV (KSAT) I assumed there was a rogue group of individuals who wanted to pick up passengers and charge them. I should have known I did not get or hear the complete story because I thought to myself who in their right mind would call for a ride for someone who responds to an app on a phone and who does not drive for a licensed cab company. Thanks for this story.

  16. And all of these cars for hire running around without the proper insurance.

    I am all for options but they should have minimum standards they have to adhere to when things go wrong.

    1. The Real FJM: As the story notes, Lyft requires all drivers to have a clean driving record and proof of insurance. There are no cars in the program being driven without insurance coverage. — RR

  17. I have witnessed taxi cabs in SA refuse to drive drunk non-violent people with cash in hand, slurring/begging for a lift home–which should be illegal to refuse. The taxi cabs in SA are a joke. They’re, unreliable/unpredictable, over-priced and unpractical as an alternative to SA’sr drinking and driving problem. Of course the SAPD would enforce ordinances for the taxi companies, as opposed to PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE.. Sadly dwi arrests, and keeping citizens on probation are big money makers in this city. It’s a vicious system and means of keeping people that can’t afford good attorneys, and/or are not educated about their rights, down. It’s just my opinion, but I think this public stance by SAPD (under the guise of public safety) shows more that they would rather see people arrested and caught up on the system, than nurture real public safety and sense of community…

  18. As others have mentioned, it’s disheartening to see SAPD discourage an innovative ride sharing system when the city has such a terrible DWI problem. It is downright scary to see how pervasive the problem is- plenty of people drive buzzed or drunk and don’t even realize it because they’ve been lucky and never had a problem. And yet bars and clubs continue to prosper, even in parts of the city like Stone Oak where patrons have no choice but to drive. Lyft is a good option for people that want to go out but don’t want to worry about how they are getting home. I think the city needs to accept that checkpoints and arresting people can’t be the only answer. We need to have a deeper conversation about DWI culture in San Antonio to explore other possible solutions.

  19. If san antonio changes rules and regulations for these “ride sharing apps” aka vehicle for hire I paid $50 the other day for my ride with lyft . The taxis can take there meters out get rid of dispatch system and use there hail a cab app and not pay for any fees or permits to the city. Then all the unemployed people at grounds transportation and taxi companies should go to the city and ask them why they are unemployed.

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