Tijuana's Secretary of Government, Bernardo Padilla Muñoz, offered a press conference where he talked about the passing of the new reforms that will regulate the city's public transit. This due to a controversy stirred up by social media users who went up in arms with the announcement of these transit regulations changes. With the hashtag #UberSeQueda trending again locally.
The city's government secretary affirmed that what the City Council approved was actually an initiative to open up the regulation process that will be applied to all kinds of public transit, specifically the amendments of article 58 of the Municipal Transit Regulations that allow for fines to be given to unauthorized services.
VIDEO: Bernardo Padilla clarifies that Uber has not been banned
The article 58 changes haven't come into effect yet, the new regulations will be under the Road and Transit Committee (Comisión de Vialidad y Transporte in Spanish), where they will also deal with Uber's operation. The actions that will take effect in 60 days will be specified in the near future.
Padilla assured us that these new reforms don't go against the app that provides transportation service, instead it focuses on regulating and applying the same conditions that are in place to each and every one of the public transit options currently available.
"It's a subject that's barely being discussed… We never said [yesterday] that we would be penalizing or denying the possibility of regulating or deregulating any type of electronic application, only that we need to regulate it if they're not following the law, but these penalizations are not yet in effect" explained Padilla, even adding that they already have scheduled talks with Uber to continue with the regulation process.
The only vote against this new reform came from councilmember Héctor Riveros Moreno, the president of the Economic Development Committee (Comisión de Desarrollo Económico in Spanish), he assured that he's currently working with some legislators from the State Congress to "clear up the subject", as well as modifying and offering suggestions for the city's regulations.
"I'm not going to protect Uber, I'm going to protect the right that they have to practice business activities, who are innovating in this aspect and for the ones who could come up in the present and future time" emphasized legislator Riveros.
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miranda.garcia@sandiegored.com
Translated by: edgar.martinez@sandiegored.com
