If taxis were more convenient, more people would use them. To someone looking for incentives to ditch his car, that seems obvious.
Luckily Seattle may license more cabs, according to the Seattle P-I. Yet officials are reluctant because the extra competition could hurt existing drivers. (Seattle has 643 taxis and King County 200+ more.)
Why not consider taxis a part of the city’s transportation network, alongside buses, rail, carpooling and biking? How about adding as many as the market will bear? The city could help by establishing taxi stands in every neighborhood.
Compare Seattle to compact cities. Boston has about 1,800, San Francisco 1,400 and Denver more than 900, according to this study. Vancouver is listed as having about 500.
Comments
2 responses to “Seattle needs more taxis”
Well, at least it isn’t illegal to hail a cab on the street in Seattle, like it is in Portland
They should also remove STITA’s monopoly on airport pickup. So wasteful. Anytime someone takes a yellow cab to the airport, that cab can’t go back in line to pick up a passenger to downtown. In the other direction, STITA taxis have a monopoly to pick up a passenger from the airport but are forbidden from picking up a passenger in town for the ride back to the airport. The result is many cabs driving around empty for no reason. The reason given for the monopoly is better airport taxi service. I smell corruption. CascadiaReport should investigate…