Courtesy of California
political reporter John Hrabe, California Assemblyman Ben Hueso, a
Democrat representing the San Diego area, was arrested in the wee
hours of the morning for allegedly driving under the influence.
This came just hours after voting for legislation that would force
more regulation on ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber.
Hrabe notes:
Assembly Bill 612 by Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, D-Van Nuys,
would require ride-sharing companies to abide by extensive new
regulations. Earlier this month, in an interview with the
San Jose Mercury News, Sidecar CEO Sunil Paul said that
the bill could mean the end of the industry that’s helped
minimize drunk driving.Paul told the Mercury News that the bill was “a burdensome
approach that is backed by the taxicab lobby, really, to try and
shut us down. If it passes, it is a disaster — it would literally
spell the end of the ride-share industry.”
The Sacramento Bee
reports that Hueso was driving the wrong way down a one-way
road at 2:30 in the morning.
In July, The Washington Post analyzed data that showed
the
number of DUI arrests dropping after ride-sharing services were
introduced to cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco. It may be
too early to say there’s a direct relationship, but in the event
Hueso actually was driving under the influence, maybe his time in
the pokey might cause him to rethink whether making it harder for
people to find alternatives to driving themselves was a good
idea.
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