At the beginning of March, the City and Borough of Juneau penned a letter to Rep. Sam Kito, laying out its concerns about a proposed bill that would bring ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft to Alaska.<\/p>\n
City Manager Rorie Watt, who wrote the letter, didn’t receive any acknowledgement from Kito or the Legislature about the city’s concerns, and both the House and the Senate passed the legislation. The bill doesn’t allow for local governments to regulate the way these Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) operate in their communities, and now it’s on Gov. Bill Walker’s desk for final approval.<\/p>\n
“What we basically got was the legislation that Uber wanted,” Watt said.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Watt wrote another letter, this time to Walker. It expresses the city’s concerns once again, mainly centering around the effects TNCs would have at the cruise dock and the Juneau International Airport. It also goes along with a letter that the Alaska Municipal League sent Walker this Tuesday urging him to veto the bill.<\/p>\n
[Legislature allows Uber, Lyft to operate in Alaska<\/a>] <\/ins><\/p>\n The issue of local control is at the heart of Juneau’s concerns, as Watt’s letter in March stated that Juneau “believes that regulating local transportation is a local issue.” The legislation currently prohibits a municipality from regulating the way TNCs operate.<\/p>\n City officials have been talking with officials from Uber recently, trying to explain the unique aspects of Juneau’s transportation landscape. With a fairly small area and very little parking, the market is already saturated.<\/p>\n Watt hopes this becomes clear next week, when officials from Uber will be in town. Uber spokesperson Nathan Hambley didn’t mention who exactly will be visiting on Uber’s behalf, but made it clear that Uber fully expects to operate soon in Juneau.<\/p>\n “Members of our team will be in Juneau over the coming weeks meeting with drivers and others to make sure our launch there is successful for drivers, riders and the city,” Hambley said via email.<\/p>\n Uber officials are expected to be in Juneau on Tuesday, to meet with staff from City Hall, Docks &Harbors and the Juneau International Airport. Those two aspects of Juneau — its docks and its airport — are at the heart of the city’s concerns with Uber.<\/p>\n The cruise dock, located downtown, welcomes thousands of cruise passengers every day during the summer. Downtown Juneau already has a parking shortage, and some city officials believe that adding TNCs into the mix would only make that worse.<\/p>\n