As great as they are, I'm still iffy about getting into a car with a stranger if I'm that drunk. I'd rather just stay at a friend's place or not drink at all
The opposition is predominantly from cab driver unions. The “ride sharing” drivers don’t have the same insurance or regulations and there are less background checks.
Im sure that plays a part, but I doubt those same entities are too keen and any regulation which restricts or cost their businesses money. Yet there are laws in place requiring those companies to take steps to ensure liability and other basic safety compliances, whereas services like uber do not have such laws. One could then say why wouldn't uber etc just then attempt to meet compliance as taxis do? The obvious answer is their business model is not tenable if they adhere to the laws set out to ensure safe and responsible operation of for hire transport. Which then sorta proves the initial point they lack the safety and responsibility oversight of other for hire companies. That doesn't make them unsafe by itself, but it doesn't make their safety unknown and who is accountable unknown.
The government couldn't run a program like this, although many cities do have government support no cost ride sharing. Why can't the government make Uber? Well- these programs are basically a txi app, easy. But the government just like taxi companies actually has to pay workers a legal wage and provide things like benefits and pay insurance. They have to have huge policies to cover the hundreds of thousands of dollars in property and medical damages that any one of their vehicles can be involved in. Uber/lyft side step those pesky things by exploiting loop holes and avoiding most of the requirements to opperate passenger fleet transport and costly labor laws and liability.
To be clear- the government has offered public transit and has been licensing taxis for a long time as well as running campaigns in media and using law enforcement to deter drunk driving. These services just did it in a way that was more convenient and/or cheap
uber and lyft are not "ride sharing" businesses. they are simply a different revenue model than the traditional cabbie. the difference being that lyft and uber drivers don't require a special permit nor do they pay an extra fee for their business activity.
Putting it bluntly the main difference is one can only spend money made elsewhere and the other makes money. That tends to make a rather marked difference in outcome.
To be clear- the government has offered public transit and has been licensing taxis for a long time as well as running campaigns in media and using law enforcement to deter drunk driving. These services just did it in a way that was more convenient and/or cheap
https://youtu.be/Cd9LPm6H_x8