It’s 5 pm on Friday, you hail a cab at Homer and Nelson downtown Vancouver, and ask the cabbie to take you to the Plaza 500 Hotel at 12th and Cambie. The taxi driver advises you that the traffic situation on the Cambie bridge is a nightmare and it’s a better idea to go around BC place or take the Granville bridge. It’s a 10 dollar taxi ride and the driver says to you that he can do it for $12 dollars including tip if he goes his way, it’ll be faster and he the driver will also be able to keep working.

You’ve been watching CTV, and are up to speed with all the propaganda that is going down about cab drivers being cheats. Making flat rates, ripping people off – the despicable state of affairs of the Vancouver Taxi Industry as CTV anchor Bill Good likes to call it in his sensationalized news coverage of the Vancouver cabbies.

There is this new thing called the “Taxi Bill of Rights”, and I have heard about it you tell the driver, I take this route everyday and never have had a problem with the Cambie Bridge.

The taxi driver has been bullied into taking you over the Cambie bridge.

Once you cross the midway point … viola! You’re in the midst of a traffic jam. The traffic is barely moving, a parking lot just as the Cab Driver had said. No problem you think, I’m the paying customer I’ll give this chap a 2 dollar tip and walk the rest of the way. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, the meter reads 5 dollars here’s 7 you throw the money on the front seat, and get out of the taxi. The poor taxi driver does not even have the ability to follow you. What will he say even if he could catch up to you? You paid him more than what the meter read. This is something he should have thought when he decided to become a taxi driver. It’s a part of the job.

Do Kevin Falcon, Bill Good, Rob Brown, Lisa Rossington or any other monger of this so called ‘taxi bill of rights’ have any clue how often such a situation occurs? Or how long it will take that poor taxi driver to get out of the traffic jam you left him (pun intended) Instead of bullying him, you could have taken his route, or taken alternative transportation. Now one can argue that is still the driver’s fault as he has the ability to ask for a deposit in this wonderful bill and he could have asked you for a 32 dollar deposit for the meter fare it would have taken to eventually get to the Plaza 500 from Homer and Nelson (hour in the cab over the Cambie bridge that is), but lets be realistic here. We all know that if the driver did so then the accusation that taxi drivers are rip offs would be substantiated.

Such a situation will happen more often to the taxi driver than the rider, which is why he is the best judge of the conditions. And should have the ability to decide the course of his working day. Let him do his job. Regardless of the propaganda the majority of the drivers in Vancouver are thorough professionals, who know the city like the back of their hands and know how to appease good customers. The non-frequent riders are the most troublesome!

Other examples of situations when the rider will try to impose a route upon the driver and where this so called ‘Taxi Bill of Rights’ is so flimsy:-

Going a route:-

• that is not a thoroughfare.
• that is traffic calmed.
• takes longer to travel on (traffic and red lights etc), but costs the same as the longer faster route.

Unless you’re making a stop, there is no real reason to make a fuss about a route that takes longer to travel or goes through a residential area etc. I can see if all factors are equal one asks the driver if he wouldn’t mind going a certain route because you like the view. Most riders are confident the route they take is shorter / better than the cabbies. Have you ever tried maps.google.com? Route comparisons are a slice

1st & Commercial to Seymour and Smythe via Expo Blvd is 4.5 kms or (2.75+[4.5*1.59])=$9.95 approximately with no time considerations.

1st & Commercial to Seymour and Smythe is via Venables and the Georgia viaduct is 4.9 kms or (2.75+[4.5*1.59])=$10.55 approximately with no time considerations. This route is 60 cents more if time is not considered. The only problem on the first route is the train on Venables, but is always faster and cheaper because the big long light on Terminal avenue can be avoided. FYI waiting time is 10 cents for every 15 seconds, so the 60 cent difference is negated by a short 90 second wait.

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