Well, I finally found a local issue about which I feel strongly
enough to voice my opinion: the pathetic lack of taxis in San Francisco.
One of the Taxi Commissioners sent me the following e-mail:
The Taxi Commission is currently conducting research for the annual
Public Convenience and Necessity Hearing, which will occur February 13,
2007 at 6:30 PM in Room 400 of City Hall.
At this hearing, the Taxi Commission will consider whether or not to
add more medallions (permits) for taxicabs to operate in the streets of
San Francisco. Research has been ongoing and involves several
components. We are very interested in hearing from members of the
community. We’re hoping that you can submit responses to the following
questions:
What has been your experience with the San Francisco taxicab
industry? Do you have problems obtaining taxicabs on particular days and
times, or in your neighborhood? What are the best aspects of the San
Francisco taxicab industry? What are the worst?
We’d love to hear it all - the good, the bad, and the ugly. At a respondent’s request, we will keep identity confidential.
I could think of nothing good, but I remain undecided as to which aspects of SF taxis are bad and which are ugly.
I replied:
Taxi service in San Francisco is inadequate and overpriced. Taking a
taxi in San Francisco is considerably more expensive than it is in
other cities, such as New York or Washington, DC.
The real problem though, is the inadequacy of supply, not the price
levels. With the exception of small parts of downtown, no one walking
anywhere in San Francisco at any time of the day or night can reasonably
expect to hail a cab. The local taxi services do not respond to phone
calls in a timely manner, and often do not respond at all. They
frequently let their phones ring off the hook, and then promise to send
cars that never materialize.
Service of this sort works to the detriment of public safety. It
encourages San Franciscans to drive more than they might otherwise want
to because taxi service is simply not a reliable way to get around
town. No reasonable San Franciscan can count on finding a taxi to take
them from one meeting to another without allowing two or three times as
much time as should be necessary. In the evenings, patrons of
restaurants and bars are encouraged to drive because they cannot rely
upon finding a taxi to take them home at the end of the evening. This
encouragement increases traffic congestion in the early evening--when
commuters already generate the day’s worst traffic--and complicates
parking in many neighborhoods. It also has the more pernicious effect
of increasing the number of inebriated (or arguably inebriated) drivers
on the road at the end of the evening. Were residents able to find
taxis to take them out for the evening, comfortable in the knowledge
that they would quickly find cabs for their returns home, many people
even contemplating the consumption of alcohol would choose to do so.
The current shortage of taxis increases the amount of unsafe driving on
our streets.
The city would best be served by deregulating the provision of taxi
services, maintaining only those regulations necessary to ensure public
safety; those intended to limit demand and elevate prices should
disappear. Since that seems unlikely to happen any time soon, I
strongly advocate increasing the supply of medalions to the largest
number currently being contemplated.
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