Colorado expected to pass the first state law regulating uberX and Lyft

We produced some TV shows our of Betaspring in RI, a very well known accelerator of start-up companies, and one of their emerging companies offered ride-share technology as well.  We think this innovative service will catch hold and put more people in less cars.  That is always a good thing, particular in congested urban areas.

Funny how a LACK of regulation could potentially shut down an industry.  Ironic and sad, really. We are certain other states will follow Colorado's lead and craft similar legislation to offer safety and protection to consumers using the service.  Too much regulation, of course, would make the service noncompetitive.

In the meantime we hope lots of people take advantage of the financial and environmental rewards of sharing rides:

(Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Any day now, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) is expected to do something no other governor has done before: sign into law a bill regulating ridesharing services uberX and Lyft.

In doing so, he would put to rest an existential concern for the companies, which use technology to connect drivers in their own cars with paying passengers. As their young industry’s first representatives in Colorado, they had faced the prospect of being shut down due to a lack of regulations. The bill, sent to Hickenlooper on Thursday, would not only provide some certainty but it could, in the process, light the path for other states trying to resolve the same concern.

The services are so new — uberX, Lyft and competitor Sidecar all launched in 2012 — that there’s still inconsistency on what to call them. In Colorado, they would be called Transportation Network Companies. A Georgia bill refers to them as Transportation Referral Service Providers. Under a failed Arizona measure, they would have been Ride-Sharing Networks. There aren’t many models for how to regulate the new industry, either.

“There’s not a ton of information out there,” says state Rep. Libby Szabo, one of the Colorado bill’s co-sponsors and assistant Republican leader in the General Assembly. Szabo was introduced to the services by her daughter and has used both. (“I love it,” she says.) The bill awaiting Hickenlooper’s signature is among the biggest she’s sponsored, she says.

California was technically the first state to regulate the industry, but its rules were born in the bureaucracy — created by a utilities commission. Colorado’s rules would be the first crafted and enacted by elected state representatives. Both share some basic characteristics, requiring rideshare services to obtain permits to operate, driver background checks, vehicle inspections and minimum insurance coverage of $1 million per accident.

In California, the rules proved controversial. About a month after their September adoption, both Uber — which offers commercial rides as well — and the Taxicab Paratransit Association of California, a trade association, requested a rehearing.

Uber argued that its uberX service was merely a technology — not a transportation company — connecting drivers looking to make extra cash with passengers willing to pay for a cheap ride. TPAC argued the opposite: Ride-sharing companies were providing “nearly identical” services as taxi companies, it argued. (The services allow users to digitally hail cars to their location through a smartphone app.) But not everyone disliked the rules. Sidecar, an uberX competitor, responded to the decision by tweeting a thanks to its followers