Los Angeles Rethinks Taxis as Uber and Lyft Dominate the Streets
Jan 13, 2020, 7:40 pm
#1
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Los Angeles Rethinks Taxis as Uber and Lyft Dominate the Streets
In The New York Times:
Los Angeles Rethinks Taxis as Uber and Lyft Dominate the Streets
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The Los Angeles Department of Transportation estimates that taxi business is down 75 percent since 2012, when Uber first rolled into town.
This year the city is changing the system. Instead of calling an individual company to request a cab, passengers will be assigned rides through a centralized dispatch that connects all the cabs in the city. The taxis can be requested with an app, as well as with a phone call. Passengers will know the cost of their rides before getting into the car. Meters will be modernized, and cabs’ garish colors will be optional. Instead, they could simply sport a decal and registration number. If that sounds more like ride-hailing, that is exactly the idea.
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Mr. Momennasab [general manager of Bell Cab, which operates 200 taxis in Los Angeles] said cab companies had been lobbying Los Angeles for at least five years to ease its regulations and level the playing field. Among their suggestions: speed up the permitting process for drivers, allow them to charge a flat fare, get rid of the exterior color requirements. The city’s new rules do all of that. Still, Mr. Momennasab has mixed feelings. “A lot of it is going to fail,” he predicted, because some of the biggest plans, such as centralized dispatch and flat fares, have already been tried.
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The Los Angeles Department of Transportation estimates that taxi business is down 75 percent since 2012, when Uber first rolled into town.
This year the city is changing the system. Instead of calling an individual company to request a cab, passengers will be assigned rides through a centralized dispatch that connects all the cabs in the city. The taxis can be requested with an app, as well as with a phone call. Passengers will know the cost of their rides before getting into the car. Meters will be modernized, and cabs’ garish colors will be optional. Instead, they could simply sport a decal and registration number. If that sounds more like ride-hailing, that is exactly the idea.
***
Mr. Momennasab [general manager of Bell Cab, which operates 200 taxis in Los Angeles] said cab companies had been lobbying Los Angeles for at least five years to ease its regulations and level the playing field. Among their suggestions: speed up the permitting process for drivers, allow them to charge a flat fare, get rid of the exterior color requirements. The city’s new rules do all of that. Still, Mr. Momennasab has mixed feelings. “A lot of it is going to fail,” he predicted, because some of the biggest plans, such as centralized dispatch and flat fares, have already been tried.
***
Jan 14, 2020, 4:46 pm
#4
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Taxis have an image problem in the US (and rightfully deserved, too). Becoming more like Uber and Lyft might not really help when people still think they'll be scammed by taking one, at least not right away. Unfortunately by the time that impression starts to shift (if it ever does), it might be too late.
That said, I'm not a huge fan of Uber and Lyft's business model, either. Not to mention that improving mass transit is a better long term option than effectively outsourcing it to rideshare companies.
That said, I'm not a huge fan of Uber and Lyft's business model, either. Not to mention that improving mass transit is a better long term option than effectively outsourcing it to rideshare companies.
Jan 14, 2020, 5:37 pm
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Jan 14, 2020, 5:58 pm
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Apparently it's enough of a thing where there's 7 million Google results for "taxi scams".
Also, in some places, riding in the wrong kind of taxi is legitimately unsafe. For example, anything not a sitio taxi in Mexico City. Granted, this sort of thing is unlikely in the US, but still.
Also, in some places, riding in the wrong kind of taxi is legitimately unsafe. For example, anything not a sitio taxi in Mexico City. Granted, this sort of thing is unlikely in the US, but still.
Jan 17, 2020, 8:48 am
#7
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People who grew up in LA? 
Since we moved here in 80s, we were told to not ever take a taxi here. They are for tourists to get taken for a ride... I actually have not known anyone who had rode in a Taxi in LA. Sometime when I see one on the freeway I would look inside and usually it is an older guy or lady and I would be thinking that poor person is going to have to spend his/her life saving on the ride.
Since we moved here in 80s, we were told to not ever take a taxi here. They are for tourists to get taken for a ride... I actually have not known anyone who had rode in a Taxi in LA. Sometime when I see one on the freeway I would look inside and usually it is an older guy or lady and I would be thinking that poor person is going to have to spend his/her life saving on the ride.
Jan 19, 2020, 2:58 pm
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Taxis have an image problem in the US (and rightfully deserved, too). Becoming more like Uber and Lyft might not really help when people still think they'll be scammed by taking one, at least not right away. Unfortunately by the time that impression starts to shift (if it ever does), it might be too late.
That said, I'm not a huge fan of Uber and Lyft's business model, either. Not to mention that improving mass transit is a better long term option than effectively outsourcing it to rideshare companies.
That said, I'm not a huge fan of Uber and Lyft's business model, either. Not to mention that improving mass transit is a better long term option than effectively outsourcing it to rideshare companies.
It will be interesting to see how this experiment in L.A. plays out.
Jan 26, 2020, 2:12 pm
#9
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Columnist Steve Lopez in the Sunday, January 26, edition of the Los Angeles Times:
Column: Cabbies hit by LAXit pickup squeeze are planning their own exit
Column: Cabbies hit by LAXit pickup squeeze are planning their own exit
Varuzhan Shahazizyan drives a Prius that’s painted such a bright shade of yellow, you’d think it was a taxi. Until a couple of weeks ago, it was. Shahazizyan, a cabbie for nearly 20 years, got tired of hustling more and earning less as ride-hailing companies began to dominate the market. His dues to Yellow Cab were costing a steady $1,500 a month or so even as his weekly take-home dipped to about $500 a week. And things got way worse, he said, when LAX switched last fall to a central pickup location for cabs and ride-hailing services alike, which put more of a squeeze on the dying taxi industry’s holdout drivers.
So Shahazizyan quit driving for Yellow Cab of Los Angeles, removed all the firm’s markings from his car, and made the switch to a company he used to think of as the enemy. Now there’s a Lyft sticker in his car window. “Yes,” he said, he used to hate Lyft and Uber. “Yes,” he said, he used to hate their drivers too. “But I have to make a living,” Shahazizyan said.
Not that it’s going so well. Shahazizyan has only been at it a short time with Lyft, but estimates he’s driving at least twice as many miles and working 12-hour days to match the $500 a week or so he was clearing as a cabbie.
And that about sums up the takeaway here.
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So Shahazizyan quit driving for Yellow Cab of Los Angeles, removed all the firm’s markings from his car, and made the switch to a company he used to think of as the enemy. Now there’s a Lyft sticker in his car window. “Yes,” he said, he used to hate Lyft and Uber. “Yes,” he said, he used to hate their drivers too. “But I have to make a living,” Shahazizyan said.
Not that it’s going so well. Shahazizyan has only been at it a short time with Lyft, but estimates he’s driving at least twice as many miles and working 12-hour days to match the $500 a week or so he was clearing as a cabbie.
And that about sums up the takeaway here.
***
Feb 6, 2020, 11:29 pm
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People who grew up in LA? Since we moved here in 80s, we were told to not ever take a taxi here. They are for tourists to get taken for a ride... I actually have not known anyone who had rode in a Taxi in LA. Sometime when I see one on the freeway I would look inside and usually it is an older guy or lady and I would be thinking that poor person is going to have to spend his/her life saving on the ride.
Since we moved here in 80s, we were told to not ever take a taxi here. They are for tourists to get taken for a ride... I actually have not known anyone who had rode in a Taxi in LA. Sometime when I see one on the freeway I would look inside and usually it is an older guy or lady and I would be thinking that poor person is going to have to spend his/her life saving on the ride.