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Las Vegas rated worst city in U.S. for transportation friendliness

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A recent study rates Las Vegas the worst among 50 large cities in the United States for the regulatory environment governing transportation services.

The free-market R Street Institute performed the study (Ridescore 2014; Hired Driver Rules in U.S. Cities) as new innovations in ride-sharing services around the world are running headlong into state and local regulations designed for, and sometimes for the benefit of, the existing taxi and limo industry.

Las Vegas had the worst ride score in the nation. Its overall score was just 55, for an F grade. It achieved this distinction by combining an extremely harsh approach to TNCs [transportation network companies], which are completely frozen out of the market, with perhaps the country’s most burdensome taxi regulations, and among the worst structures for limos as well. The result is a regulatory morass that makes for poor transportation in the city.

The City of Las Vegas’s rating, however, is largely due to factors that city officials cannot control. The laws and regulations that comprise this “regulatory morass” were enacted at the state level and can only be undone by the Nevada Legislature.

A report on the R Street study in the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal hints at the difficulties.

Teri Williams, public information officer for the Nevada State Department of Business & Industry, said current tension between taxi and ridesharing services is not a matter of competition, but of law.

“Any entity that wants to come into the state to provide a for-hire transportation service is welcome to do so, as long as they are able to take the necessary steps to comply with the laws,” said Williams.

Unfortunately for prospective entrants to the industry, the necessary steps include requirements that amount to having to obtain the permission of existing companies to be allowed to compete with them.

The state’s hostility to the new innovations in ride-sharing was evident in response to a recent attempt by Uber to begin operating in the Silver State.

Agents from the Nevada Transportation Authority (NTA) ticketed Uber drivers and impounded their vehicles in Reno, Las Vegas and other areas. The state’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit to shut the service down in the state. A Carson City judge issued a temporary restraining order the company claims only affects operations in Carson City, the state’s capitol.

A Clark County District Court judge refused a request for a temporary restraining order shutting Uber down in the county that includes Las Vegas. However, he also ruled that NTA agents may continue to issue tickets to Uber drivers it suspects of violating the law.

The R Street Institute provides an interactive map accompanying the report that allows user to view the rating in each of the cities included in the survey as well as the data behind it.

[Header image from R Street Institute interactive map – ridescore.org]


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