Not that you can find a taxi in L.A., but ...

  You hail a cab in downtown L.A. -- legal. The cabbie actually stops -- illegal. Which, let's be honest, is illogical. Apparently the Board of Taxicab Commissioners (who knew?) agrees.

During a lively meeting at City Hall, cabbies and commissioners and city officials talked taxi, Daniela Perdomo reports.

Los Angeles has some of the most stringent taxi regulations in the country: Cabbies can’t pick up passengers in a bus zone, alongside a red curb or on a busy street when no-parking regulations are in effect. During rush hour, the city’s busiest streets become “no stopping” zones, which means drivers could be ticketed for loading.

And though the participants batted around some possible solutions, please don't practice your ear-piercing whistle just yet. Before heading for the exits, the board called for the city’s Transportation Department to prepare a detailed report with recommendations on how best to, ahem, move forward.

Taxi!

--Veronique de Turenne

Comments

[Jay Handal]

This, the bus lane on Wilshire, the Pico Olympic disaster, are all symptomatic of a city that is broken. Maybe someone will actually begin using common sense instead of executive memorandums, to actually fix some of the quality if life problems we have here.
The issues we deal with daily, and the remedies that are proposed, remind me of "Humpty Dumpty" who couldn't put it all back together again.....
Time for real leadership.......

[jOE]

The real problem here is the lack of taxicab stands in the City of Los Angeles. Parking has become so scarce that the city removed all of the stands, forcing people who want a cab, to hail them from bus stops and red zones. This problem is really accute in the San Fernando Valley, where there aren't any stands on the streets. It's a $255.00 fine for parking near a bus zone, it just not worth it.