RideFair Coalition calls on mayoral candidates to regulate Uber to support the City's climate goals

TORONTO, May 18, 2023 /CNW/ - Today, Toronto's RideFair Coalition delivered an open letter to Toronto's mayoral candidates to commit to ensuring City policies reflect its climate goals and reduce car dependency by regulating ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft and by promoting sustainable transportation alternatives. This open letter is signed by a cross-section of environmental groups, cycling and pedestrian advocacy organizations as well as transit supporters.

"For too long, our political leaders have been telling us everyone should be able to drive everywhere, whenever they want," said Brendan Agnew-Iler, co-founder of RideFair. "But there just isn't enough space in a vibrant, busy city. We are calling on anyone who wants to be mayor to endorse the existing climate change goals and work with the community to ensure that we get there."

Toronto has some of the longest commutes in the world, and it is about to get worse with current and pending road closures.

"Road users and transit riders experience firsthand that traffic congestion is strangling our city. Having too many cars on our streets puts our prosperity and quality of life at risk," says Agnew-Iler. "This mayoral election presents an opportunity to move off former Mayor Tory's car-dependent path and change the balance of our transportation system to ensure people can keep moving, to make our streets safe, and to create beautiful public spaces."

Toronto's previous administration actively expanded and promoted private car use by de-regulating the vehicle-for-hire sector to add 90,000 Uber/Lyft cars to Toronto's transportation mix. This caused emissions and congestion to increase and introduced conflicts with cyclists and pedestrians while transit ridership plummeted.

"Anyone serious about becoming mayor of our city must reduce our reliance on private cars and restore the TTC," says Shelagh Pizey-Allen, the Executive Director of TTCriders. "The City's TransformTO plan alone set ambitious climate change targets that rely on 75% of trips under 5km to be walked, biked, or to be taken on public transit by 2030."

The upcoming election presents an opportunity to put forward a plan to reduce our reliance on private vehicles, but not without correcting the City's vehicle-for-hire strategy brought to us by Uber lobbyists during the Tory administration.

SOURCE RideFair coalition