Cops Launch Crackdown On Cab Drivers Who Refuse To Pick Up Passengers
Posted April 14, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s not always the safest area of the city, combining alcohol-fuelled young adults, would-be predators and sometimes people who are looking for trouble. Add the fact it’s the dead of night and many would argue it’s trouble waiting to happen.
Still, most people who frequent Toronto’s Entertainment District to party late into the night on weekends are simply looking for a good time and then grabbing a cab home. But therein lies a dilemma.
Toronto Police have found what the late night crowd has long ago discovered – some cab drivers looking for bigger or more frequent fares are bypassing passengers who want to go longer distances, leaving them stranded in the area, often alone, slightly intoxicated and in major danger after last call leaves the streets swelling with crowds.
In other cases, they’re refusing to pick up passengers without them paying in advance.
It’s led to assaults and fights between 2 and 3am as people fight to get the taxis that are on patrol, while others stand out dangerously in the middle of the street, trying to get a cabbie’s attention.
So police looked at the unfair practice over fares and decided to do something about it, launching Project Take Me Home last weekend. They stopped 45 cabs and laid 35 charges under the City of Toronto Municipal Code for not picking up passengers – including 21 for refusing the first fare.
Cops pledge to continue the undercover sting on an ongoing basis as a warning to cabs to pick up the pace – along with the people.
For more on the code and what taxi drivers aren’t allowed to do when you hail them, click here.
