Commuting

An online petition against a bill currently being drafted by the Transport Ministry that will restrict the operation of taxi services like the homegrown Beat app and ride-sharing initiatives like Uber had garnered more than 11,000 signatures by Thursday evening.

The Transport Ministry is drafting legislation that is purportedly designed to regulate ride-hailing services such as Beat and Uber but that would effectively make it harder for them to compete with Greek taxi drivers.

Half a million people have signed an online petition in under 24 hours backing Uber's bid to stay on roads of London, showing the company is turning to its tried-and-tested tactic of asking  customers for help when it locks horns with regulators.

London stripped Uber on Sept. 22 of its licence to operate from the end of next week in a huge blow to the taxi service and 3.5 million users in one of the world's wealthiest cities.

The capital's transport authority said the Silicon Valley technology giant was not fit and proper to hold a private vehicle hire licence and it would not be renewed when it expires on Sept. 30.

London's transport regulator on Friday stripped Uber [UBER.UL] of its license to operate from the end of the month, affecting over 40,000 drivers in a huge blow to the taxi app, Reuters reported.

The global ride-hailing service Uber appears to have established itself in Greece unofficially, with an undetermined number of drivers, but there is no legal framework to regulate those drivers' activities.

Croatian taxi drivers blocked roads and hindered access to airports in Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik on Friday, causing maximum inconvenience at the peak of the touristic season.

A new mobile transportation initiative by the Istanbul municipality has drawn angry reaction from the public over enabling audio and video recording in cabs during travels, with legal experts describing the move as a "violation of the right to privacy."

Maintenance and housekeeping work on a number of key roads in Thessaloniki will cause some disruptions to traffic from Monday through Friday, authorities have said.

The areas that will be mainly affected are the Oraiokastro interchange and the highway between Thessaloniki and Nea Moudiana.

I have been writing "technology is politics" for years but only now are political columnists jumping on the bandwagon. Any technological progress, any new device, any new service cannot be evaluated on its own. Technology is very much intertwined with society, economics, military and politics.