Waymo Expands to Los Angles And Bay Area Freeways & Yellow Won't Pick Up At 100 Crockett Street & Warning About Cabbies----Not A Ringing Endorsement & For-Hire Numbers Have Reached the One Hundred Thousand Figure

The California Public Utilities Commission's (CPUC) New Questionable Decision

Despite the Mayor of Los Angeles' protests, the CPUC has opened up parts of Los Angeles (and the Bay Area) roadways and highways to more Waymo robotaxi service.  This expansion means that the driverless cabs will be able to zoom along on LA freeways at 65 MPH.   As someone who has extensive experience driving LA roads, I call this a recipe for disaster.  The CPUC ignored the February 6th accident in San Francisco, where a Waymo cab struck a bicyclist.  Thankfully, the injuries were minor. 

The City of Los Angeles pleaded with the commission to wait for State Senate Bill 915, currently under consideration, giving California cities more regulatory ability to control their own streets, to see if the bill passes but no, said the CPUC, we can't do that.  All it is going to take is for the next Waymo accident to be fatal, then everything will stop.  Will the CPUC apologize?   I don't think so. 

You Are Not Going to Get a Cab at Queen Anne Manor, so Why Even Try?

A once regular customer of mine has moved to senior housing on the top of Queen Anne Hill, the address being 100 Crockett.  When I was driving I  picked up there many times but no more it appears as Yellow cabbies are refusing to pick up there despite numerous requests.  Why?  Because they all assume it is just some old lady going to a grocery store, meaning it isn't worth their time to pick up the customer.  This is an old story and it isn't going away.  Nothing happens to a driver who throws the bell away.  No one cares. Not Puget Sound Dispatch.  Not the City or King County.  No one cares as the elderly customers sits and waits, waits, waits for the never arriving cab.  I care.  Do you?

Criminal Cabbies

Here is a quote from a NY Times article, "US Warns Spring Breakers Headed to Mexico, Jamaica and the Bahamas,", reported by Vjosa Isai: "A lot of times, there's not a lot of gap between criminals and taxi drivers in many countries, so using a trusted transportation provider is huge."  This from Scott Stewart, Torchstone Global Security.   Isn't that nice, jump in a Jamaican cab and get robbed. Wonderful.  Nothing like crime to go with your suntan. 

So Much for the Good Old Taxi Days

A taxi buddy, when trying to renew his TNC (Uber/Lyft) for-hire noticed that the new licensing numbers have reached over the one hundred thousand driver figure.  Does it mean that there are now over 100,000 TNC drivers in Seattle and King County?  Probably not but the TNC drivers certainly surpass the past number of cabbies operating in Seattle and KC.  At most I think we had 3000 cabbies at any one time.  As I will tell anyone who asks, this is why Uber and Lyft were allowed to break the law and eventually destroy the local taxi industry.  It is all about money, and all those new for-hires are generating big money for the county.  Who cares about a professional cab service?  No one is the answer.