Hara Study Calls for 120 Cabs in 2013, 200 in 2014, 800 Total

At the Town Hall Meeting yesterday,  Director Chris Hayashi gave us a preview of the Hara and Associates study that will officially be given to the SFMTA Board on March 19th. (Make that April 16 - see below).The above figures are the number of new taxis that the MTA staff will recommend that the Board approve.

The numbers are based on three assumptions:
1. That there are not enough taxis to meet the demand now.
2. That the city will grow over the next eight or ten years, increasing the demand for cabs.
3. That many people who don't take cabs now will begin taking them if the service improves.

The figures naturally will be subjects for extreme debate. I personally don't think any more cabs should be put out until Lyft and Sidecar are crushed while Yellow Cab's Nate Dwiri is probably thinking, "Why didn't I ask for a thousand?"

Mark Gruberg, among others, complained that people will not have enough time to study the Hara document before the MTA votes on it. I made a similar point in a conversation with Hayashi after the meeting and she said ...

But just as I'm about to post, the Staff comes down with a bout of common sense and sends along this message:

NOTICE

March 13, 2013

The SFMTA Board hearing on whether to issue new medallions will NOT be held
on March 19, but instead will be conducted on April 16, 2013. This decision to
reschedule the hearing is to allow time for public review of the final report from
Hara and Associates prior to action being taken by the Board. The SFMTA
expects the Hara Report to be ready for distribution during the week of March
18. Copies will be distributed to the SFTaxi newsletter and will be posted on our website www.sfmta.com/taxis.

There will be a Town Hall meeting to discuss the Hara Report on April 9,
2013. See www.sfmta.com/cms/ctaxitownhall/taxitownhallindx.htm.

The following item related to taxis will still be heard on the March 19, 2013 Board
Amending Transportation Code Sections 1102, 1105, 1108, 1109, 1113 and 1114 to require all motor vehicle for hire permit holders to cooperate with implementation of the Electronic Taxi Access (ETA) System to support the development of taxi hailing smart phone applications, forcolor scheme permit holders to provide financial data to support the SFMTA’s review of gatefees, and extending the deadlines for implementation of electronic trip data and blind-accessible passenger information monitors, and providing that a driver may not smoke inside ataxi at any time.

I'll deal with the report in more detail after reading it. I'll review Electronic Taxi Access (ETA) etc manana.

A Reward for Playing by the Rules?

Brian Rosen is fifty-two and has followed all the rules. He's done everything that he was supposed to do to "earn" a taxi medallion.

Rosen's been driving cab five shifts a week (2,000 to 2,500 hours a year) for almost twenty years. He takes a lot of dispatched calls, knows the city, rides for orders in the neighborhoods, has a good driving record, accepts credit cards and treats his customers well.

He's also one of the few cab drivers who has health insurance. He pays $854 per month for a policy with a $2,950 deductible.

 Brian put his name on the Waiting List in 1993 and he's currently number 38.

If the SFMTA Board had not replaced K with the Pilot Plan two years ago, he would almost certainly hold a medallion by now.

If the rules of the Pilot Plan had stayed in effect, he would almost certainly be a medallion holder soon. The Plan called for one newly issued or re-issued medallion to be given to the List for every medallion put up for sale. Whenever the city put more cabs on the street, he would have received a medallion.

If the Taxi Services Staff Recommendations worked out by Director Christiane Hayashi in May 2012 (calling for one medallion issued to the List for every permit issued or medallion sold by the MTA) were to take effect, he would certainly get a medallion soon.

But, if the SFMTA's current proposal (based on a plan of MTA Board Director Malcom Heinicke that was rejected by a Charter Amendment reform group in 2007) is passed by the MTA Board, there is no mention of the commitment previously made by the city under every other plan to reward drivers like Brian for playing by the rules.

"I'm very concerned," Mr. Rosen told me stoically. "The anxiety I feel is very frustrating."