It looks like the city of LA will finally make it legal for cabs to pick up passengers hailing curbside, at least in the two main urban centers of Hollywood and Downtown.
It’s true; I often pick up people curbside, but the police can and have issued citations.
The Hail-a-Cab program was first established in 2008 as a pilot program. The program allowed taxis to temporarily stop at ‘No Stopping’ & ‘No Parking’ zones and alongside parked vehicles to load and unload passengers.
City Councilmember Jan Perry authored the program and recently said, “Since we adopted the Hail-A-Taxi program, there has been an increase in taxi use in our urban centers. We hope to see this up-tick continue as we develop a permanent program in our two urban centers.”
Councilman Tom LaBonge said he wanted to see neighborhood taxis for first and last mile trips to and from transit hubs. Perry added, "You really should just do it citywide.. Let's just get it done."
A different motion will be introduced in regards to making the hail-a-taxi program citywide.
This notion of moving toward a hail system is so alien to me, since in NY that is the ONLY way we are allowed to engage fares. It is illegal for yellow cabs to have a dispatch radio or to distribute your phone number to would-be future customers. In NY it's strictly street hail.
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