Well, I knew the US was anti-small business, but this is ridiculous. Went to work my taxi the other night, and I got stopped for loading a fare at the curb, that's all I did. The ordinance is written that taxis cannot block or impede traffic, but despite 6 months of working with traffic engineers on the problem, we still have no place to pull over.
Yet the police are starting a detail specifically for this, when it took them 7 years to catch a rapist. Sounds like profiling to me, harrassing the working man for trying to make a living with an ordinance and no way to obey it.
Is that bacon I smell? Yeah, Officer O'Malley, go back to your doughnuts. Tax dollars hard at work.
Showing posts with label police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label police. Show all posts
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Tell Me The Point Of This......
Okay, so tonight I get stopped by a city cop. For what, you may ask? Picking up a fare. That's all I did. Apparently, the police do not want us stopping in the street to pick up fares, even though there are often no spaces available to pull over.
I asked the officer why they were "cracking down on cab drivers" as he put it. Apparently, a cab was rearended by a DUI driver just last night, while stopped to pick up a fare.
Okay, so let me get this straight. Who was really breaking the law here, the cab, or the DUI driver? Would they rather the DUI driver have run over someone crossing the street a block or two later?
The cab driver that was rearended in all likelihood probably saved someone's life, and now we are being harrassed by cops that have nothing better to do.
I might add that even though the ordinance for vehicles for hire states that meters are required, there are rickshaws (bicycles converted to chariots, essentially) charging up to $10.00 a mile flat rate, depending on what the person operating the rickshaw comes up with. My taxi meter charges $3.90 per mile, metered.
These rickshaws are too wide for the bicycle lane, and too slow for normal traffic. They have a tendency to swing U-turns into oncoming traffic. They have no signalling devices whatsoever, and I would really like to know how you insure a bicycle to operate for-hire.
If you live in the Charlottesville area, I implore you to call the Chief of Police and ask him if his officers have anything better to do than hassle the working man for making a living.
I asked the officer why they were "cracking down on cab drivers" as he put it. Apparently, a cab was rearended by a DUI driver just last night, while stopped to pick up a fare.
Okay, so let me get this straight. Who was really breaking the law here, the cab, or the DUI driver? Would they rather the DUI driver have run over someone crossing the street a block or two later?
The cab driver that was rearended in all likelihood probably saved someone's life, and now we are being harrassed by cops that have nothing better to do.
I might add that even though the ordinance for vehicles for hire states that meters are required, there are rickshaws (bicycles converted to chariots, essentially) charging up to $10.00 a mile flat rate, depending on what the person operating the rickshaw comes up with. My taxi meter charges $3.90 per mile, metered.
These rickshaws are too wide for the bicycle lane, and too slow for normal traffic. They have a tendency to swing U-turns into oncoming traffic. They have no signalling devices whatsoever, and I would really like to know how you insure a bicycle to operate for-hire.
If you live in the Charlottesville area, I implore you to call the Chief of Police and ask him if his officers have anything better to do than hassle the working man for making a living.
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