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It's Friday August the 4 around 9:33AM and

Vancouver Taxi Cab Scandal

The Province's Joey Thompson has done some reporting on Vancouver's Taxi cabs. Not only are they hard to find, and rarely know where they are going (well, better than Beijing), and worst of all, Toronto has more of them per person than we do:

The statistics tell all; Vancouver has one cab per 1,360 people while Toronto offers a taxi for every 540 residents. Vancouver's population has grown by 129,000 since 1986. Dozens of condos now mark the downtown skyline. Tourism has made steady gains and cruise ships disgorge thousands of visitors every summer yet the city has added only 20 permanent cabs in that time.
And there lies part of the problem. The Passenger Transportation Board and city hall restricts the number of cab licences, making them a hot commodity fetching upwards of $400,000 a piece.

So I count multiple problems with Vancouver Taxis, but who's counting. There aren't enough of them, and they are useless. I guess more would be a start.

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Comments

Posted by: Luke

August 4, 2006 10:06 AM

Why the hell would the city not want to sell a crap load of $400,000 licenses and create jobs at the same time? There are pig farms that are run better than this city is. Paul Teichroeb, you sir, are a hack.

Posted by: miss604

August 4, 2006 11:18 AM

I've only been able to get a cab if I call ahead first. And if they say they'll be there in 10 mins, they'll actually be there in 6 and then leave (just before you get there in 8 mins) *sigh*

Reason why I walk n' transit everywhere.