STITA Closes it's Office
The departure of that once mighty group of Sea-Tac cabbies says everything about what is currently the awful state of affairs that is Seattle & King County taxi. In short, it is abysmal. Orange Cab is gone. Farwest has 20 working cabs. Yellow is operating with about 250 taxis. The only bright spot, if there is one, are the 400 plus cabs working Sea-Tac International Airport but even they are fading due to the head-to-head competition from Uber and Lyft. Though they are cheaper than the TNC companies, most of the arriving passengers don't know it, taking Uber and Lyft as a matter of habit.
In a last conversation with Puget Sound Dispatch's (Seattle Yellow Cab) General Manager, I found his protestations about current business trends to be unrealistic, not based on what I have seen first hand as a front-line owner/operator. A few months earlier, in a discussion about pick-up times, he said the average wait time was 11 minutes. 10 years ago, yes, that was true at times but not now, not at all, especially outside of downtown and late at night. Denial has been, and is the taxi industry's death knell, and so in that sense, the bells are ringing, hearses, not taxicabs lining up to haul away the dead. It is a bad situation. The vultures are circling. And that's the way it is, Seattle-style taxicab 2023.
The Judge was Disingenuous
Finally I got my in-person court date concerning the four bus lane violations I was questioning. In a last desperate attempt at taxi advocacy I refused the first offer of reduced fines, understanding that I might end up paying the full amount for all four tickets. I did this because I wanted to have my say, pointing out how poor the signage is, suggesting it might be a kind of entrapment but no one, especially the judge, heeding my arguments. After getting my butt kicked over the first violation, I acquiesced and took a reduction for the final three, understanding how farcical my effort was, defeated before I started. Have I learned my lesson? Yes, I certainly have.
Remembering the horrible cab accident of September 13th, 2018
Yesterday I encountered the former Yellow cabbie who survived an awful head-on collision with a wrong way driver at North 155th & Aurora Ave. North in 2018. His passenger, a 62 year-old woman, was killed. He was hospitalized for 7 months. The 21 year-old kid driving the big American car wasn't insured. I have looked up the photos of the accident and the cab was demolished. I don't know if the kid was charged with manslaughter or some other such serious charge. The former driver recognized me first, remembering my past efforts toward the industry. "You were our leader," he said, which was nice to hear but shouldn't he have had more coverage and protection at the moment his car was struck? Why yes, and even though I cared, my concern wasn't enough to bring about the changes our industry required. The man is very lucky to be alive, and walking. Screw taxi!
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