The ride share service Uber, or as we like to call it, conversation roulette, has had tough times recently as it tries to fend off attempts to shut it down. Taxi cab drivers, who obviously see a loss in revenue from the app-based service, are trying to block it from operating in Hillsborough County and other places; Palm Beach County recently imposed tighter restrictions on Uber and Lyft, a similar service, and Uber stopped operating in neighboring Broward County in protest of possible new rules restricting the service.
But in St. Pete, officials don't seem inclined to try to shut the service down.
At a recent Libertarian Party of Pinellas candidate forum, St. Pete City Council Chair Charlie Gerdes, who is running for reelection for his west St. Pete District 1 seat, expressed his support for such companies.
"Uber and Lyft are manifestations of technology, entrepreneurship," he said. "This is where our country is headed. This is where humanity is headed. To take ideas and ban them because traditional established interests don't like it is not the way to look at it."
His solution?
Get rid of some taxi industry regulations, which Gerdes said are "antiquated."
"What the taxi industry is saying is, if you're going to have one set of regulations for us and a different set of regulations for them, that's not fair," he said. "Can't argue with that statement. So what we need to do is find a way to modernize and liberate, if you will, the taxi regulations. Open them up so it's not so onerous and burdensome. And it allows these new technologies, entrepreneurship and innovations to occur. What's the best for us? Competition is best for us. We're certainly smart enough to find a way to make this work and I think it'll make it better for the taxi drivers, not worse."
Taxi drivers say ride sharing services don't require their drivers to have certain types of insurance and could be hazardous to passengers, something drivers say isn't the case.
Gerdes said it's time to break the status quo.
"The worst reason to do something most of the time is that that's the way we've always done it," Gerdes said.
Gerdes' opponent, Monica Abbott, said she was a little more cautious about the ride-sharing concept, but would likely try to help Uber and taxi drivers coexist.
"I would try to work with both groups so that all of the options are there for all the St. Pete people...who want to get around. I think it also offers opportunities for jobs. People can drive for a few hours, they can make some money."
But she does have concerns about Uber and other innovative and still relatively new concepts that, to many people, seem untested.
"This disruptive technology is coming along the pike in all different areas, and Uber is just one," she said. "There's also Airbnb, which is causing some interest with homeowners who suddenly have little vacation hotels next to them and they don't even know who these people are that are coming and going. So these kinds of technologies are so new, but I do believe it's unfair to the established taxi drivers. At this point I also wonder about the insurance levels. But I do think it's going to go forward as technologies do as they meet a purpose for certain people."