Transportation in Texas is affected by a wide range of economic factors, many of which are not readily apparent. Take, for example, vehicle miles traveled. VMT affects congestion, road maintenance, and fuel tax revenue. However, VMT is largely driven by economic factors, which can include anything from economic growth in metropolitan areas to changes in […]
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State vs. Local Control at the Center of Legislative Debates for Ride-Hailing Providers
Since 2013, 45 state legislatures have passed bills that impose some degree of statewide regulation on transportation network companies (TNCs). TNC is the term given to private-ride service providers such as Uber and Lyft. In six states, including Texas, the regulation focused on insurance requirements for TNCs and TNC drivers. In 39 states, a more complex regulatory framework was introduced. Often, these bills explicitly overrule existing TNC ordinances and the local authority to regulate TNCs. This is sometimes called state “preemption” of local authority. While state versus local authority is an important governance issue, it’s intertwined with the regulatory question of how much TNCs should be regulated (if at all) and the extent to which TNC regulations need to be tailored to local context.
In the current legislative session, Texas lawmakers are considering TNC legislation that would preempt local ordinances in 20 Texas cities and replace it with a statewide law.
There’s No Such Thing As the Suburbs
For a recent report, TTI was faced with the challenge of classifying 1,300 survey response zip codes as urban, suburban, or rural. Researchers wanted to know where respondents lived to look at how shopping trends might affect freight and deliveries in different areas. We asked respondents things like “are you an Amazon prime member?” and […]
Transportation Policymakers in the 85th Texas Legislature
Leadership in both houses of the Texas Legislature have made their appointments to the committees that will examine legislation and shape transportation policy in Texas for the next two years. In the Senate, members of the Senate Transportation Committee and the Article VII Working Group of the Senate Finance Committee have, respectively, already begun deliberating […]
From the Mailbag: TNC Background Checks?
The Transportation Policy Research Center gets questions from legislative and other offices. Today’s question is about background checks and companies like Uber and Lyft, known as Transportation Network Companies (TNCs). The answer is provided by TTI Associate Transportation Researcher Maarit Moran. Question I’m doing some research concerning statewide TNC legislation and I came across your […]
House Transportation Committee Interim Report
The House Transportation Committee has issued its 68-page Interim Report to the 85th Legislature. Following up on study charges issued by the Speaker of the House, the report studies a number of topics and provides recommendations. The Legislature may take those recommendations into consideration but is not required to. The report is found in full […]