Columbia City Council to discuss expanding number of late-night rideshare pickup spaces

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia City Council will begin discussing changes to its late-night rideshare/taxi stand ordinance on Monday.

Currently, there are 34 parking spaces in five downtown Columbia locations designated as taxi stands between 11 p.m.-2 a.m.

The revised ordinance would expand to 66 spaces and allows the ordinance to begin earlier at 9 p.m. each night. The new ordinance would also make rules for food-and-package delivery, impose a 15-minute loading and unloading time and allow emergency services to use the spaces. This will be considered a “first read” for the ordinance, so a vote will occur at a later meeting.

Council documents say police “noted a rise in traffic congestion related to rideshare operators and patrons violating traffic laws in the downtown area during overnight hours” during August 2025.

Documents claim parts of the new ordinance were tested out during two Mizzou football home game weekends last fall.

“During this testing both rideshare platforms guided patrons to the specific locations for pick up inside of their smartphone applications. The results of both of these pilot weekends saw a dramatic reduction in traffic violations and an overall improvement in pedestrian safety,” city documents say.

Areas for pickup and drop-off for the proposed ordinance, according to city documents, include:

• Broadway, north and south sides, first six spaces east of Hitt Street
• Broadway, north and south sides, first six space west of Hitt Street.
• North side of Cherry Street between Ninth and Tenth streets
• West side of Ninth Street, first four spaces south of Elm Street
• West Side of Tenth Street between Broadway and the alleyway just north of Broadway
• West Side of Tenth Street between Cherry Street and the alleyway north of Cherry Street
• North and south sides of Walnut Street, first four spaces west of Ninth Street.

A map of the spaces can be viewed below.