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Originally Posted by ken0042
Just wanted to address these issues a little bit.
As for the empty buses and trains, coming from a city where the buses run late into the wee hours of the morning (Winnipeg); I have always wondered in Calgary just how much of that is cause vs. effect. For example, I live in Copperfield. The last bus from the C-Train to Copperfield runs around 10:00pm. Other routes are similar; and the system shuts down by about midnight. Does nobody take transit because it doesn't run late enough? Or does transit not run very late because nobody takes it?
I look back to my days slinging pizzas. We would close at midnight or 1:00 on weekends. The reason being- "nobody orders that late at night." At one point the owner and I decided we would continue taking orders as late as we could, and do so for a few months to see what happened. Once word got out that we were open late, we started to get busy late at night.
But I digress, and I agree that running transit later is a far more complex issue than just drunk driving. There are costs that none of us are qualified to answer, and I'm sure other variables.
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You raise some good points. When i lived in Queensland i worked the graveyard shift for Safeway near Southcentre Mall. I took the bus to avoid wear and tear on my vehicle. Anyway the bus i took at 11 PM was mostly empty with me and the driver plus a few other passengers. On the other hand my best friends wife works for the Foothills hospital and is frustratrated with the fact that transit doesn't run late at night as many nurses and such would have used the service.
I have wondered if maybe the bars downtown should get together and purchase a few school buses and use them to transport bar patrons home. Say one for each quadrant in the city. That might help to ease the taxi and public transit situation.
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However with the issue of taxis not wanting people getting sick or passing out in their cabs- I have to say "tough." A number of years ago I was at an after work function. I had taken the train to work that day in anticipation of not being able to drive home after. A girl I worked with ended up having way too much to drink, so after getting her cleaned up I volunteered to get a cab and take her home. We spent 1/2 an hour trying to hail cabs on 11th ave. Some would stop- but then they would see her and speed off. She was also so plastered that she wanted me to drive her home with her car; or she could drive. 
We finally got her standing up long enough to hail a cab. But what an ordeal.
My point in all of this- the shortage in this city is for cab licenses- not in drivers looking to work as cabbies. Being in any job you take the good with the bad. I worked in bars and dealt with drunks. It was a fun job most of the time; but sometimes you had to clean up puke or break up a fight. If a cabbie only wants the middle class families as fares, then they are in the wrong business. You have to take the good with the bad.
Add to all of this the fact that there is always a shortage of cabs in Calgary- not just after bars and not just NYE. Last weekend we had a cabbie pull a complete dumb-dumb manuvre in front of us. We got to the store we were going to and when my g/f went in, I tried to call the cab company to complain. I tried for 40 minutes and never got past the busy signal. This was on a Saturday at 2:00 in the afternoon.
Cab companies could instute a cleaning fee chargeable to customers. Heck- even require a deposit up front if the person is drunk. I know in my younger days I had cabbies ask for some cash up front.
I suppose my bottom line is that more cabs certainly won't completely solve the issue of drunk driving. But it can't hurt; and there is no arguing that we need more.
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Your g/f comment reminds of a time when a buddy and i took a cab home from some bar on electric avenue. He tells the driver he's going to puke and is told to stick his head out the window. He did but unfourtunately the puke never made the ground as most landed on the hood of the car behind him.
I do think though that you make some suggestions. A cleaning fee might get more drivers to take bar patrons as a fare plus it would help with any possible cleaning costs. Maybe have barf bags available in the back seat like you see in the seat backs of airplanes. Money up front was asked of us on a few occassions.
I'm still up in the air as wether it will make a huge effect but will agree that add more cabs will help the situation.