By John Dempsey, WLS News
(CHICAGO) It might be more difficult to get a taxicab today in Chicago. A lot of cabbies have decided to go on strike to protest competition from Uber, Lyft, and other rideshare services.
The taxi drivers are specifically angry about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to allow the rideshare services, to pick up passengers at O’Hare and Midway airports, and at McCormick place.
United Taxi Drivers Community Council Secretary Peter Ali Enger told “The Big John Howell Show” on WLS, that cabdrivers are subjected to numerous government standards, while Uber is not. “We had this conversation a hundred years ago when all of public transportation was actually privately owned and operated. The public demanded that the cities and municipalities and counties, jump in and regulate it because lots of bad things happen. There were unsafe cars, there were unsafe drivers. Vehicles that are inspected by the City, State, County, there’s national standards of regulation for public vehicle safety, standards that Uber and Lyft and all these new companies don’t have to follow those standards”
Listen to the full interview on The Big John Howell Show here.
Emanuel says in return for allowing the rideshare services to compete with cabbies, the city will raise cab rates. However Ali Enger says that increase will not be enough to offset the loss in business to the rideshare services. He says the Mayor’s plan could kill the taxicab industry. The cabbie strike is set to last until six Friday morning.
@2015 WLS News
