Yesterday, presumptive Mayor Janeese Lewis George announced her opposition to pending legislation to legalize Waymo for passenger service in the District, citing concerns about job loss.
While not unexpected given her previous comments, this is deeply disappointing to me and raises real questions about Lewis George’s willingness to prioritize the safety and well being of Washingtonians and her seriousness about attracting new private-sector investment to innovate and grow our economy.1
What’s more, for a candidate who won her primary promising to make the District more affordable, blocking Waymo does not make Uber or Lyft less expensive.
Waymo, for its part, remains committed to launching in the District, sharing the following spokesperson statement: “Waymo will support safer roads, hundreds of new jobs, and expanded access to reliable transportation options for communities across the District. We are committed to working with District leaders to deliver those benefits.”
As we have covered in Capital Commonsense, the District has a traffic violence problem. Despite spending millions on traffic-calming infrastructure, dangerous driving in the District has grown dramatically in recent years. Dangerous drivers face few consequences, and the costs of traffic violence are disproportionately borne by the poorest communities in D.C.
Given the failures of Vision Zero and city leaders appearing increasingly resigned to dangerous drivers racing down our streets without consequences, I have been strongly supportive of Waymo officially launching in the District, particularly as a frequent pedestrian who does not drive.
The safety data Waymo has published is compelling: As of last month, Waymo had accumulated more than 270 million miles of autonomous driving. Waymo’s independently validated data shows a rate of serious-injury and fatal crashes 20 times lower than human drivers. To be sure, there are instances where things have gone wrong, but all available evidence points to Waymo being much safer than human drivers.
While I support Waymo for the safety benefits, I wanted to dig deeper into Lewis George’s claim that Waymo will cause “disruptions that put countless workers at risk” for those with legitimate concerns about jobs.
How many District residents are countless workers? The answer is not countless. Per Councilmember Lewis George—it’s 200 full-time workers. Waymo has met with and briefed councilmembers, including Councilmember Lewis George, in recent months. She shared that around 200 ride share drivers who are D.C. residents drive full-time-equivalent hours.
Many ride share drivers who drive in the District are residents of Maryland and Virginia, but Councilmember Lewis George is running to be the mayor of Washington, D.C., not the governor of Maryland or Virginia, and she should prioritize the safety of all Washingtonians.
Governor Wes Moore and Governor Abigail Spanberger do not prioritize jobs for Washingtonians ahead of the safety of their own residents, I assure you.
Legalizing Waymo passenger service would also create new jobs in the District through construction of depots and ongoing operations support required to run a 24/7 service. Waymo says it intends to invest in hundreds of good jobs as the service grows. These jobs would be more stable with predictable schedules and benefits like health care, unlike independent-contractor ride share jobs.
Councilmember Charles Allen, to his credit, has already negotiated concessions from Waymo, including a per-mile tax and resources for workers. Beyond the new jobs Waymo would create and the revenue and resources Councilmember Allen has negotiated, it’s worth noting that drivers continue to work for Uber and Lyft in cities where Waymo operates. As an experiment, while writing this I searched for how long it would take me to get an Uber from my favorite Austin restaurant—Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que—and the answer was one minute.
Capital Commonsense readers can support Councilmember Allen in his efforts to move this bill, and urge their councilmembers to support. I hope our incoming mayor changes her mind.
I had been very encouraged by Lewis George’s new message on our housing crisis and said so, so I am particularly bummed by this development.
Very disappointing to hear from the presumptive next mayor. Traffic violence is a big problem in this city and it needs to be taken more seriously.