BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati cab drivers don't want to be left out of transportation plans for the 21st century, so the once-splintered group is joining forces.
About 40 cab drivers and owners make up the new Unified Taxi Association of Cincinnati. They want to make sure their voices are heard as the region moves forward with plans on how to deal with increasing traffic in Greater Cincinnati.
“The taxicab industry has been ignored to this point,” said Raymond Glover the group's president, who has been a cab driver for eight years. “We want to take our place among transportation here.”
Cab drivers have heard plan after plan for more buses and possibly light rail and diesel-powered commuter rail in downtown. They want to make sure they're included, such as having taxi stands at the new Reds and Bengals stadiums planned for the riverfront.
“This is not a game we're playing here,” Mr. Glover said. “We're playing with people's livelihood.”
Cab drivers last week presented concerns to Cincinnati City Council members. A meeting between the cab association and regional transportation forces, including the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) and Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, which oversees Metro, is set for Monday.
“The issue is how do we find a way to deal with all the transit interests,” said Councilman Todd Portune, who with Councilwoman Jeanette Cissell is addressing the cab drivers' concerns. “There has to be a blending of their respective services for everyone to benefit.”
Making sure taxicab representatives are part of the planning stages would be an important step, Mr. Glover said.
Some recent decisions have not considered that type of transportation alternative.
For example, plans for a two-tiered new Second Street that will serve as a transit hub for buses and possibly light rail does not even mention taxi stands.
“We feel we can work alongside mass transit,” Mr. Glover said. “We ask to have the same opportunities.”
Another concern is competing against heavily subsidized mass transportation, said Charlie Stillwell, who owns and operates a cab in Cincinnati.
Some taxi drivers who don't use radio dispatch systems say they've lost about $30 a day since the Southbank Shuttle started running this year.
TANK runs and subsidizes the blue buses, which average 3,000 to 4,000 passengers weekly. The buses make a loop through Bellevue, Newport, Covington and downtown Cincinnati, stopping at points such as Fountain Square and MainStrasse Village.
The cost: 25 cents.
TANK spokeswoman Gina Shipley, says the service is targeting a different ridership than cab drivers, who can deliver people someplace quickly. “It's a leisure ride,” she said. “We are taking people who would walk or not go.”
But taxi drivers say it's still taking away from business they once got from people in town for conventions. And although there is no money in Metro's 1999 budget and no plans in place, drivers worry about a similar shuttle service that has been discussed in Cincinnati. That service would run from downtown to the Main Street entertainment district.
“It's inherently unfair for tax-subsidized transit on either side of the river to be competing with private enterprise,” Mr. Stillwell said.
Those concerns will be examined at the meeting later this month.
“We want to get them all to the table and see if there is a problem or potential problem,” Mrs. Cissell said. “(Taxicabs) are vital to the city.”
While taxicab drivers try to participate in transportation discussions in the coming months, they'll be working to educate the public about their value as part of the transportation system.
“There's still room for growth for the taxicab business in this area,” Mr. Glover said. “Every other major city has a viable taxicab system. There is no reason Cincinnati shouldn't be the same.”
