The city of Port Townsend may rekindle its on-off relationship with Uber.

Several members of the Port Townsend City Council were mostly supportive of letting the ride-share company return to town during a discussion about the idea at last week’s Transportation Committee meeting.

City Attorney Heidi Greenwood said Uber currently doesn’t operate in the city, but will drop off customers who have hailed a ride elsewhere that ends in Port Townsend. 

Earlier attempts for the ride-share company to operate in the city proved problematic due to the city’s municipal code, which regulates for-hire vehicles.

The rules date back to 2013, and were written before ride-share businesses became ubiquitous in larger cities across the country.

“It was written before these types of businesses, so it didn’t contemplate them,” Greenwood told the committee.

Under those regulations, traditional taxi companies were required to obtain a business license from the city, and each driver needed a city endorsement. Vehicle inspections and driver background checks were also required.

In earlier years, Greenwood added, transportation network companies were “very, very unwilling” to have their drivers apply for city endorsements, and claimed that identifying their drivers would mean divulging a trade secret of their business.

Uber has previously operated in Port Townsend, Greenwood said, but stopped when they were told they were in violation of the city’s business licensing code.

It was an inglorious end.

“They just turned off their app,” Greenwood said.

The city attorney said she has since reached out to the company to find out what is preventing them from operating in Port Townsend.

Now, she said, the conversation for the council is “Do we want them here?”

The city and Uber are currently considering a Memorandum of Agreement of how the company would operate in Port Townsend.

The draft agreement right now is for each individual driver to get a business license. Uber would provide insurance and background inspections.

Greenwood said allowing Uber to operate in town raises a number of issues, including the potential for increased traffic, greater competition for downtown parking, wear-and-tear on local streets, the environmental factor of vehicles idling while waiting for customers, and potential law enforcement impacts, with drivers possibly being both victims or perpetrators of crime.

“These types of companies can lead to a greater number of cars on the road,” Greenwood noted, which can also be a disincentive for public transit.

Upsides include transportation options for visitors who are not familiar with the area, as well as benefits for residents who cannot or do not drive.

“This is a good service for some of our residents who may have transportation limitations,” she said.

Councilmember Pamela Adams noted that ride-share companies in her hometown of San Francisco had made traffic worse.

“It was almost impossible for a driver who lives there to get anywhere because the traffic was so bad,” she said.

In Port Townsend, Uber drivers may end up double parking as they wait for customers, adding to traffic problems in the downtown area.

That said, it’s always a good thing when new businesses locate in Port Townsend and provide jobs, she said.

People who don’t want to take the bus could also use Uber to come downtown and not take up a parking space during their visit, she said.

The pros and cons were kind of a toss-up, Adams said.

Councilmember David Faber said allowing Uber to operate could help reduce the potential for drunk driving.

“That’s very prevalent in our community,” Faber said. “I have personally seen so many people have a number of drinks then take their car from downtown and drive home.”

Buses only run until
7 p.m., he added.

“Well before closing time,” Faber said, and well before people would have finished having a drink after dinner or a movie downtown.

Faber said he is regularly asked by residents about ride-share companies getting the go-ahead to come to Port Townsend.

Traffic snarls are unlikely to come with them, he added.

“We’re not likely to see bumper-to-bumper traffic jams,” Faber said.

On the jobs issue, Faber said Uber drivers typically earn from the high end of $20k to more than $100k a year, depending on the hours they put in. 

“I see much more upside than downside,” he said.

The transportation committee agreed to continue its review of the idea at a future meeting before bringing it to the full council for a discussion.