Jersey City considers ride-sharing identification requirement

The mayor of Jersey City wants his city to be the first in the state to require ride-sharing vehicles to have identifying signs for customers.

News 12 Staff

Apr 4, 2019, 11:09 PM

Updated 2,112 days ago

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Jersey City considers ride-sharing identification requirement
The mayor of Jersey City wants his city to be the first in the state to require ride-sharing vehicles to have identifying signs for customers.
The proposed legislation comes in the wake of the death of Robbinsville Native Samantha Josephson. The 21-year-old University of South Carolina student was allegedly killed by the man she mistook for her Uber driver.
If approved, drivers with companies like Uber or Lyft would be required to have well-lit signage inside of their vehicles so that customers would be able to better identify them if they operate in Jersey City.
“I think we have a responsibility to provide safety for our residents,” says Mayor Steve Fulop. “It’s never going to be an absolutely safe environment because there is always leakage. But I think our responsibility is creating a city that people feel comfortable and safe using any resources that are available.”
Fulop’s ordinance is modeled along the lines of a bill introduced in South Carolina this week following Josephson’s death. The mayor says that it will be easy to enforce.
“Once you pull somebody over…if they don’t have the necessary requirement, you know, you start to ticket them,” he says. “The tickets are real and that’s how you get the habit to be changed.”
Fulop says that fines could be up to $2,000 per infraction. He says that the ride-share companies would be responsible for footing the cost of the illuminated signs.