Kristen March Soha proposes app-based metering for pedicabs

Yeah, obviously, if the duties were moved over to the TLC, we'd have to talk about a budgetary component of that, and something that we talked earlier to both TLC and DCWP about.

Councilmember Brewer?

All right.

I don't think we have any questions for this panel, so thank you both for being here and testifying, and I appreciate your comments are really helpful.

I'm going to move on to the Zoom panel.

We have Kristen March Sona, Matthew Sona, and Stephen Stallman.

If you are available, you can start your testimony.

You can unmute yourself, please.

Yes, this is Kristen March Soha.

I was given the option to unmute, so I'm just assuming I can go first.

Yeah, go ahead, please.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chair and members of Council.

I'm here to represent a exclusive cycle.

We are a pedicab-specific ride-hailing app, and these problems, honestly, have been nationwide and industry-wide.

We've seen the increase of these pricing problems for, I would say, maybe like around a year or so with this per person, per minute, and, you know, a lot of bad actors in the industry.

So our goal was to increase trust and compliance.

We have a vetting system.

We have a rating system built in.

And we have the goal of eliminating basically these predatory behaviors that are going on.

So we think that we can solve a lot of these industry problems.

We also have basically an app on the passenger side where they would see the rate before they commit.

They would see the elapsed time and the accumulating fare.

And so we're here to ask for an approval pathway and an allowance for a software-based metering system that would be on a passenger handheld device in addition to this bike-mounted meter system.

And again, we're open to, again, helping the industry in any way possible.

But we would like for that particular.

allowance to hopefully be written in as well, because now we can give kind of an industry standard, again, across whether there's a independent driver like that's been doing this for 20 or 40 years, like some of these panel members that we've heard,

or even a fleet owner, we could give, you know, some kind of

standardization, right?

Some kind of recognized brand across this industry.

It doesn't have to be completely controlled by one company.

We don't believe that, but we would like to give the consumers also access from someplace.

Time's expired.

The Broadway tour, the Broadway theaters, right?

Now they don't have to be out there standing on the street side to find a pedicab.