Uber deserves a chance to succeed

DC Taxicab Commission Chairman Ron Linton thinks Uber, a new service that lets people reserve luxury-sedan rides from their smartphones, is illegal. If he’s right, then something is wrong with the law, not with Uber. …

[Uber] deserves a chance to succeed, and so does anyone else who thinks they can build a business by safely making transportation better. This is a metropolitan area with many different transportation needs, and though there are many modes available, we can use more options.

Taxi drivers, who provide transportation at lower fare rates than Uber, complained that Uber is providing taxi-like service but not being regulated like taxis. This is analogous to Safeway complaining that some new cupcake shops are offering cupcakes at higher prices, and potentially higher quality, than Safeway’s bakeries do.

Continue reading in my latest op-ed in the Washington Post.