Hailing a cab is now legal in Los Angeles -- for now, anyway

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a six-month test program today that will allow taxi cabs to pick up fares at more places in downtown L.A. and Hollywood. Here's how downtown Councilwoman Jan Perry put it after the momentous vote: "Common sense has prevailed. Now we can hail a cab like they do in other cities."

Yes, Perry was being sarcastic. Like others, she thought this was something the city should have done a long, long time ago.

The new rules allow taxis to stop or let off customers in red zones and curb lanes that the city has designated as anti-gridlock zones -- as in no parking there during rush hour. Cabs are also now allowed to double park to pick up or drop a customer. The one place they're not allowed to go is bus stops -- something of a sticking point between the city and Metro for the last few months.

And the effect of this? Will Los Angeles be as cab-friendly as New York, where it's a bit of a time-honored tradition to get honking drunk, stumble out to the curb at 3 a.m. and raise your arm and flag a cab for a safe and subway-free ride home? (Which, by the way, leads to the traditional game of try-not-to-throw-up in the back of the cab).

But serious differences remain between the cab culture in America's two largest cities. New York has more than 13,000 cabs. Los Angeles has about 2,300. A typical cabbie in New York can get about 50 fares a day; in L.A. it's about 20. Less than half the residents of Manhattan own cars -- meaning they're transit dependent. Car ownership rates are far higher in L.A. And because there are more cabs and more customers in New York, fares are lower.

For example, a five-mile ride in New York in a cab would cost about $12 to $14 plus surcharges. A similar ride in L.A. is about $20 and that doesn't count the 10% fare increase that goes into effect later in the summer.

William Rouse, the general manager of ASC, a company that runs five local taxi services, said the big advantage of the test program will be that it will encourage taxi drivers to pick up more short trippers. At present, most cabs wait at designated pickup zones -- usually hotels. If they get a short ride, they're stuck driving back to a hotel with little hope of getting a fare on the way and then they must get back in the rear of the line.

"The old rules that applied to taxis were the same ones that applied to private vehicles," Rouse said, pointing to the fact that those rules pretty much prevent taxis from doing what taxis do best -- pick up people looking for a ride.

I asked Edward Torossian, a cab driver in L.A., how the program would affect him. He promptly apologized. "My English is not as good as yours," he said. I told him that I didn't expect him to speak good English -- he's a cab driver, after all, and this is America.

"We don't want to stop" and block traffic, Torossian said. "We just need to stop so we can pick up someone and go."

The program will begin soon and continue for six months so the city can evaluate whether taxis picking up fares cause massive regional gridlock or perhaps help people get along. If the program works, officials say, it may be applied to the rest of the nation's second-largest city.

-- Steve Hymon

Photo: Kathy Willens / Associated Press

Comments

[common sense]

It is about tiime! Good all around, taxis do what they are supposed to and the drivers can make more money and the public gets a service which it desperately needs in this town.
But I suppose the city likes the fact it makes big bucks on DUI's and parking lots.
Lets try to make this citywide and end this trial period nonsense.
Commom people lets push for this

[Gregory K]

I double that Yay! and also say repeal the "no dancing in bars without a cabaret license" nonsense while you're at it. And furthermore, I'd appreciate being allowed to judge for myself when it's safe to cross the street at an intersection downtown or anywhere else where the speed limit is 25 or less.

[Dan Wentzel]

Yay!