Editorial: Use this opportunity to legislate car-sharing right

Back in August, we urged the state legislature to deep-six a bill that put heavy restrictions on upstart peer-to-peer ride sharing companies. We argued that while of course these businesses should be regulated and consumers given due protections, the bill heavily favored legacy car rental companies with little or no regard for the car-sharing industry.

The bill, as written, would make it difficult or impossible for an emerging business to get off the ground. As well, an opportunity to get people out of single-occupant vehicles would be missed - bad for traffic congestion; bad for air quality.

The bill passed in May passed with a veto-proof majority in the House and nearly that in the Senate. Gov. Rauner issued an amendatory veto in August, arguing the restrictions were too draconian, and would stifle progress and innovation. This gave the legislature three choices: override the veto, accept Rauner's changes, or dump the bill and start over.

We argued for Door No. 3, and now that the bill is expected to come up for an override vote, we urge our suburban legislators to force it back to the drawing board.

Backers say the legislation is meant to avoid the same kinds of unfairnesses the heavily regulated cab companies suffered when Uber arrived on the scene. We understand that the legacy rental car companies are feeling threatened - the car-sharing company Turo has 233,000 users in Illinois alone - and we agree they shouldn't be expected to compete against an emerging service that doesn't have to abide by equivalent safety and consumer regulations.

Consumers also must be assured they aren't taking their lives in their hands when they use a car-sharing vehicle.

With this bill, however, the legacy rental companies like Enterprise have induced lawmakers to gut an existing transportation bill and then load it up with restrictions and taxes on the people who make their vehicles available and the customers who would use them.

The legislature needs to start over. Lawmakers need to talk to all sides - both the legacy companies and the car-sharing companies, and then draft a bill that is in the best interests of consumers.

Much like Uber and Lyft - and like Airbnb, the travel platform that lets private citizens rent out housing space on a short-term basis - car sharing is catching on with young people, who don't have the same attachment to personal vehicles that their elders have.

Unlike the Uber experience, however, we have a chance here to get car-sharing legislation right the first time. This bill just kicks that can down the road.