Ashland, Ore. — The city of Ashland wants to bring ride sharing to the community.
“What we’re doing is trying to lay the groundwork of a good ordinance that serves the public of Ashland and we have to think some things through,” Councilman, Dennis Slattery, said.
While drivers are able to drop off in Ashland they can’t pick up there, yet. They’re hoping that changes soon.
“It would actually help boost my business,” Abraham Loebs said.
Loebs has been driving for Uber for a month. He says serving Ashland is a no brainer.
“So by Ashland being a college town, it just simply makes sense,” he said.
The city council doesn’t disagree, it just needs to figure out how to keep people safe first. One thing that involves- background checks.
“There’s no background check that is ever going to be that perfect, but we want to be able to make sure that whoever is doing these background checks is really diligent because we’re putting our citizens in these cars,” Slattery said.
However inevitable ride sharing may seem, the council wants to get it right for their city.
“It’s making sure that the ordinance and the agreement that we make, fits this community. We won’t just take what Medford did and just plop it here,” Slattery said.
Even though Uber hasn’t made it to the area quite yet, the city council believes it will come.
“I think people are very interested in having it, and I think there is this dynamic between some trade offs and having the service and I don’t think we can get everything exactly right but I think it is the way of the future, and I do see us doing it personally.”
Councilman Slattery is hopeful the service will be in Ashland by the summer.
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