Free Republic

Ride-sharing company Lyft’s new turn-out-the vote effort in cities in five battleground states has sparked outrage from conservatives who think it is a ploy to help Democrats win in November. Lyft has formed a partnership with More Than A Vote, an advocacy group led by Black athletes including basketball player LeBron James, to provide free and discounted rides to polling locations in major cities in five key battlegrounds: Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Tea Party Patriots’ Jenny Beth Martin said Thursday that her legal team is reviewing its options to challenge Lyft’s actions as a potentially “illegal corporate...

If it’s not green, it’s not millennial--and that’s a big problem for a company like Uber, or Lyft. Millennials love ride-sharing, but they don’t appreciate the CO2 footprint that comes with it. The immediate problem for Uber is this: The next-generation of ride-sharing is already here--born out of massive millennial demand. It’s green through and through, and it’s set to command some serious market share. Millennials are driving a new mega-trend: impact-investing. Facedrive, the first ride-sharing company that lets you plant a tree while you drive, and choose exactly what kind of footprint you want to leave behind, is leading...

Uber transformed transportation when it spent a fortune turning ride-sharing into a mainstream mode of transportation. But the 2.0 version of ride-sharing is where the real disruption begins. It fixes everything that’s wrong and latches onto a mega-trend the giants shouldn’t have ignored: ethical investing. This is where drivers get a boost, riders get a choice, and CO2 goes neutral.

Two women in South Carolina mistakenly got into a car over the weekend they believed was an Uber only to be driven down a dirt road by a man police have yet to locate. Early Friday morning, two women were waiting outside a Hilton Head Island restaurant in Reilley’s Plaza when a dark-colored SUV pulled up. According to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, the pair had called an Uber to take them back to their vacation rental and believed that the car that approached them was at least a driver for the ride-sharing app. “Although the women were aware that...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Uber is enabling passengers to tip its U.S. drivers with a tap on its ride-hailing app for the first time, part of a push to recast itself as a company with a conscience and a heart. Besides the built-in tipping option announced Tuesday, Uber is giving drivers an opportunity to make more money in other ways too.

The cost of toll roads, the toll of urban congestion, ride-hailing battles and a high-speed train war garnered plenty of attention in Texas this year. And after the Legislature spent two sessions focusing on highway funding, lawmakers now appear poised to tackle other transportation matters next year. Here's a look at the year's biggest transportation stories and how they may continue to unfold in the coming months:1. Uber and Lyft roll out of Austin after losing city electionNational ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft stopped operating in Austin after voters there rejected an ordinance that would have repealed certain regulations, including...

They may not ride in crammed trains or carry angst over potholes but feuding presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both want to fix America's infrastructure. The focus on improving public transit and highways couldn't come soon enough for local commuters, say two experts. "There is a desperate need to invest more into mass transit in Chicagoland," Regional Transportation Authority Chairman and former state senator Kirk Dillard said. "Most states significantly assist in the mass transit arena, but that is not the case today in Illinois," Dillard added, noting New York City budgets about $196 per capita on mass...

Former Attorney General Eric Holder has come out against proposals in Chicago and New Jersey to require fingerprint background checks of drivers for ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Lyft. Why would President Obama's onetime top lawman come out against regulation that is supposed to protect the riding public? Credit the intersection of two forces. First, Holder's tony corporate law firm, Covington & Burling, represents Uber. Also, as Holder sees it, requiring drivers to submit fingerprints may "have a discriminatory impact on communities of color." I was surprised to read about Holder's opposition, as I have trouble seeing Holder as...

Uber and Lyft spent more than $8 million and bombarded voters with mailers, ads, phone calls and text messages. In the end, it wasn’t enough to convince residents in Austin, Texas to vote against a new fingerprint requirement for drivers. On Saturday, Austin voted 56% to 44% against Proposition 1, which would have allowed ride-hailing companies to continue using their own background check systems. The city will now go ahead with plans to require fingerprint background checks and other regulations. Both Uber and Lyft have announced they will no longer operate in the city as a result of the loss....

There’s just no way regulation can keep pace with innovation, and pols who think it can are living in a land of paleo-fantasy. Ridesharing giant Uber has come under heavy fire recently with a string of revelations about its safety record, collection of private data, and relationship with the media. If Uber did actually mislead its customers, it should certainly be held responsible. But Uber’s stature looms so large that its unique controversies also threaten to cast a shadow over the “sharing economy” as a whole. The rapid rise of the sharing economy is changing the way people around the...

<p>Imagine this line in a German accent: “[T]he driver has to play by the German rules.” Shudder.</p> <p>The online car-sharing service Uber has vowed to continue operating across Germany after its mobile app was banned by a Frankfurt regional court.</p>