The taxi dispatch system simply does not work. One reason is a taxi driver will pick a person they see on the road first even if dispatched to pick up another. Another reason is, you can even pre-book a taxi a day in advance, but that doesn't even reserve a taxi... dispatch won't put the order out to the cabs until 15 minutes before the pickup. There are many other reasons.
Uber tilts the system over and tends to balance supply and demand, though uber itself is not perfect and has some issues to overcome. But to the average consumer, uber will be able to achieve something the Calgary taxi system can not do-- make sure everyone gets a ride when they want one.
I'm particularly disappointed with my area's councilor, Richard Pootmans (aka Hard Poo Man). I have made 5 efforts now to get his position on this issue and all I've received (and about a month after my email) was from a staffer of his and the reply was junk-- not addressing the issue in any fashion, just saying it was complicated.
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