More Proof That Canada Hates The Environment

Despite the fact that I lived there, I have a long running feud with Canada, which I loving refer to as the 51st state. Now we have more absurd news coming from the frozen wasteland to the north.

And it is also awesome PR for the previously little-known Barbados-based (It’s actually Canadian, but they are almost certainly officially in Barbados for tax minimization) startup PickupPal, which puts people together traveling to the same destination to carpool.

It turns out that Ontario, which includes Toronto and the capital city Ottawa, has strict laws regulating carpooling under the Public Vehicles Act. This is despite the fact that the government has spent “billions” in carpooling lanes. Carpoolers can only travel from home to work and back, must ride with the same driver every day and can only pay by the week, among other restrictions.

A bus company asked the Ontario Highway Transport Board to ban PickupPal’s service in the province based on the regulations, and the Board scheduled a hearing on the matter. PickupPal gathered support against the ridiculous case, and the government is now said to be reconsidering the laws.

Bureaucracy is awesome.

Lots more details on this PickupPal site.