City says no to adding more taxis

[Drummer]

CBC Article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...axis-1.3015626

Huh? No new licences because of the economic downturn in the city...

[jar_e]

Cause that makes ####ing sense. Why there isn't a free market on cabs is beyond me. We can still license and regulate regardless of how many there are.

[BlackArcher101]

Wtf?

[Cheerio]

And then when the economy recovers are they going to say that cab companies need a chance to make up lost profits? So sick of this song and dance, either make the whole system public like Calgary transit, or make it all private and let the free market work. Stop helping out these private businesses at the cost of screwing over your citizens

[mrkajz44]

In January 2015, there were 621,648 trips in Calgary taxis. That was down two per cent from trips taken in January 2014.

Their decision was largely based on this statistic. How can they not understand that having a cap on the number of taxis is the main driving force behind a lack of increase in total taxi trips? Their logic:

1) Limit the number of taxis (and therefore create a ceiling on total taxi trips)
2) Watch total number of taxi trips plateau
3) Use this as reasoning that more taxis are not required

They constrain the system, and then justify it by saying "see? There is no growth, so why do we need more taxis?"

[GP_Matt]

I wonder how many of the Councillors took donations from taxi companies.

I can't imagine any other way to justify them acting in the best interests of taxi companies rather than citizens and visitors.

[CliffFletcher]

You know, some day a drunk driver is going to kill someone, and it will come out that he spent 40 minutes trying to get through to a cab dispatcher, and another hour waiting for a cab that never showed up, and then got in his car and drove. It won't excuse the drunk driving, but it will reveal how the low cap on taxi licenses in this city is putting people's lives in jeopardy.

When the province put in the new laws regarding 0.05 blood alcohol, Calgary's police chief went on record saying that anyone who has even two drinks should call a cab, which is a dramatic change in expectations. And yet there were no provisions made to increase the number of taxis available.

At some point government and regulators needs to pull their heads out of their rears and regard the taxi regulation as a public safety issue, not a small business issue.

[DoubleK]

Nenshi's 'data driven' soundbite was laughable.

Open up the market. Let it sort itself out.

[crazy_eoj]

Laughable decision if based on the # of trips statistics.

Supply and Demand is lost on city hall I guess?

[Red]

The 2% drop was probably due to the unusually warm weather this year. We could use more cabs.

[The Ditch]

Anecdotal but I have yet to talk to someone who think there isn't a taxi problem in Calgary, whether it's the availability or price. I wonder who is paying off who in the city to keep this situation going.

I got to use Uber recently in the US and it was so slick then I come back here, wait forever for a cab, and pay over $35 for a 17km trip.

[Cappy]

There are 3 things that have made me pretty disappointed in City Council this year, specifically the inner city Councillors and Evan Woolley, my Councillor:

1) the general lack of serious consideration, even disrespect, towards UBER coming to the city.
2) Taxi's
3) The Car2Go anti-clustering bylaw

These three things just show me that either the move away from private cars is still not on the Councils agenda, despite their rhetoric, or that Council is trying to move to a driverless culture by skipping valuable alternatives in the evolution.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

This kind of thing is the reason we live in a second-class city.

[squiggs96]

Wrong thread.

[Burninator]

I honestly can't think of a more plausible explanation to this other than some sort of corruption in city council with the cab companies. Nothing else makes sense in regards to the lack of cabs, the blocking of companies like Uber and the protection (so they say) of cab driver jobs to the detriment of the city (cab users).

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Cappy

There are 3 things that have made me pretty disappointed in City Council this year, specifically the inner city Councillors and Evan Woolley, my Councillor:

1) the general lack of serious consideration, even disrespect, towards UBER coming to the city.
2) Taxi's
3) The Car2Go anti-clustering bylaw

These three things just show me that either the move away from private cars is still not on the Councils agenda, despite their rhetoric, or that Council is trying to move to a driverless culture by skipping valuable alternatives in the evolution.

Car2go shouldn't be subsidized by people who drive downtown and pay for parking. If Car2go is going to be a viable alternative to owning a private vehicle it should have a cost structure that covers the use of city parking.

The whole cab situation is a joke, the monopoly will be broken eventually.

[llwhiteoutll]

Are the campaign finances and all donations for council and the mayor automatically released or do you need to use a freedom of information request to get it?

[Locke]

This is crazy, the City has a serious taxi shortage and they're literally helping it along.

[northcrunk]

The city can't give it's citizens what they want like more taxis......
They will give everyone what they don't want like more taxes.......
Dummies.

[polak]

Stupid Stupid Stupid.

It's getting to the point where some sort of investigation needs to be put into place to figure out what the #### is going on here cause no is that stupid.