What would the outcome be of a total taxi ban in a major city? I imagine strikes, outcries etc, but no major disruption to the net ability for people to get around.
Many handicapped people are dependent on (subsidized) taxi services.
It is indeed annoying that the rich just use them all the time, but I won't advocate cutting off the nose (preventing the rich from using taxis) to spite the face (letting regular folks using it for an emergency).
Agree with these, and have been glad for an on demand ride service for some of these, but I feel that these are the likely a small percentage of the total use, and that the system currently biases towards a catering for a minority indulgence rather than a general public good.
Agree that it is a spiteful proposal. I'm very frustrated by the slow pedestrianisation of London, and the taxis are a key piece of this.
I'm trying to find some example of how other Western European cities have pedestrianised their cities and dealt with the issue of taxis.
Edit: A further thought: In London, taxis are given the same privilege as buses (they can use the bus lane). This comes to the crux of my issues with cabs in the city. I think the service can exist for the reasons indicated, but giving _an empty taxi_ the same privilege as a _full bus_ speaks to a decision made with different priorities. Not only does this slow down the 100x more people in the buses but it encourages use of taxis as a "rich person's bus" alternative to the tube.
Because they are point to point transportation for the elderly and disabled.
I wonder what the utilisation of taxis by elderly and disabled looks like as a percentage of the total rides. I think finding some mechanism that reduces congestion while catering for this would be attainable.
[0] https://www.gov.uk/transport-disabled/taxis-and-minicabs
If you fly in internationally the Heathrow Express also quickly deposits you at St Pancras. Unfortunately, despite the speed, it's not worth the additional cost in my opinion.
Whether the same logic applies in London (which has a world-class metro system) is debatable, of course.
the real danger in my city isn't taxi or uber/lyft, it is the ebike rentals. they are currently banned after dark and have caused over two hundred calls for injury to Atlanta fire services, plus four deaths involving the bikes
How many traditional bicycle deaths happen in Atlanta per year? How many calls for bicycle injuries happen a year?
Just saying that e-bikes have 200 injury calls and 4 deaths is insufficient information to hold any opinion on them.
Georgia has over 4 automobile deaths per day.