Many drivers concerned about cost of implementing new regulations
Scores of New Orleans taxi drivers and owners have packed the City Council chamber in advance of this morning's Transportation Committee meeting on a sweeping slate of changes to city laws governing for-hire vehicles proposed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu. The session, which has drawn a standing-room-only crowd is expected to include testimony from dozens of industry representatives, including many concerned about the cost of implementing the proposed rules.
Scores of New Orleans taxi drivers and owners pack the City Council chamber Tuesday morning for the first public hearing on a slate of proposed changes to city laws governing the for-hire vehicle industry.The 10 a.m. meeting is streaming online at the council's website. The meeting will end at 12:45 p.m., said Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer,the sponsor of the cab overhaul legislation.
Among the proposed changes are mandates that all cabs accept credit cards and have on-board satellite-navigation devices. They also would ban junk cars being rebuilt as taxis and a require that a cab can't carry more passengers than it has seat belts. Taxis older than a decade also would be barred from city streets, with the maximum age dropping to seven years in 2014.
The overhaul also would require the installation of internal security cameras and silent alarm systems to notify dispatchers when a driver is in distress. Twenty-one taxi drivers have been killed in the line of duty in New Orleans since 1994.
While those rules are intended to enhance driver safety, they may be among the more contentious because of their cost. All proposed changes to vehicles and equipment are estimated to cost $2,000 per cab.
Officials want all of the new regulations in place by the 2013 Super Bowl.