Tuesday, September 23, 2014

S.F. taxi owners, cabbies join forces against Uber, Lyft, others

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Taxis, badly losing the battle on San Francisco’s streets, are finally fighting back.

After seeing 65 percent of their business migrate to ride services like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar, taxi drivers and company owners, at odds for decades, have joined forces — not only with one another but with their overseer, the Municipal Transportation Agency.

Their common goal is to save the taxi industry — highly regulated by the city as part of its transportation network — from extinction at the hands of the largely unregulated upstarts, which use smartphone apps that allow customers to summon and pay for rides from drivers using their personal cars.

“We’re at a real crossroads here, and we’re on a mission,” said Kate Toran, MTA’s director of taxis and accessible services.
The rent-seekers of San Francisco unite to shaft the public from lower cab fares!