Maple Ridge Mayor Mike Morden is welcoming ridesharing, if it ever gets rolling in Metro Vancouver.
On Thursday, Metro Vancouver mayors voted to fast-track a regional business licence for ride-hailing in the new year.
Read more: Metro Vancouver mayors agree to fast-track a regional licence for ride-hailing
Only one member of the regional mayors’ council on transportation, Surrey’s Doug McCallum, voted against the motion at TransLink’s headquarters in New Westminster.
“Bring on the ride-hailing. Please,” Morden commented on the issue on his Facebook page.
“Twenty TransLink mayors have voted to accept the recommendation to establish a regional business licence regime to facilitate ride-hailing. Only Surrey’s Mayor McCallum opposed the motion,” Morden added.
“Citizens, I think, are in vast support of ride-hailing, particularly for my community in Pitt Meadows,” Mayor Bill Dingwall said last week.
A year ago, Maple Ridge council in December 2018, wrote to Premier John Horgan and Transportation Minister Claire Trevena asking them to speed up the process of bringing ride sharing to B.C.
“This is a service that citizens are demanding and one that is particularly important in a suburban community like ours. Ride-share services help fill gaps in public transit, taxi and limousine services and provide flexibility for our citizens who do not have access to a vehicle,” Morden said then.
Read more: Maple Ridge tells premier, get going on Uber
Ride-hailing is anticipated to hit the Lower Mainland as early as the end of the month, according to the B.C. government, and eventually function in a zone model across the province, with each city responsible for its own licensing model.