City says no to adding more taxis
City council is putting the brakes on issuing new taxi plates.
There was a proposal at Monday's meeting to issue 64 new plates with the expectation the new cabs would be on the street by Stampede in July.
However taximeter data shows the economic downturn is taking a bite out of the taxi business. In January 2015, there were 621,648 trips in Calgary taxis. That was down two per cent from trips taken in January 2014.
Several dozen taxi drivers were on hand to listen to the discussion. One of them, Gurdev Sehkon with the Calgary Cab Drivers Society, is pleased with council's decision to wait.
"I think they did good because economy, the economy's doing very bad right now, right? So I think this is helpful for the taxi drivers," he said.
While council voted to put these additional cabs on hold, it did vote to issue seven new accessible taxi plates.
Last year, city council voted to release 383 new plates to keep up with the demands of a growing population and increased passenger volumes at the Calgary International Airport.
The city issued 126 new taxi plates 2014 and those taxis are now in service. The plates carry the condition the taxis be on the streets Friday and Saturday nights.
