www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Friday October 26, 2007 - 9 More taxis arriving By Kim Arnott SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Sixteen new taxis are expected to roll onto Oakville's streets in time for the Christmas season. The increase, which will bring the town's taxi fleet to a total of 82 cars, was described as a "reasonable compromise" between two widely differing viewpoints on the state of the town's taxi industry. Town staff believes 44 new taxicab plates should be issued over the next two years, to cut down on waiting times and improve service to local residents. However, many local cabbies have argued that a two-thirds increase to the number of cabs operating in Oakville would be disastrous for the industry. On Tuesday night, the town's Administrative Services committee agreed to a compromise position that would see one taxi plate issued for every 2,000 residents. The town currently has a ratio of one cab for every 2,500 residents, but town staff had suggested the ratio should be one cab for every 1,500 residents. "We are anecdotally getting information that people are waiting too long for taxis or not getting taxis when they want them, which would suggest to us that there are not enough taxis," said Gord Lalonde, Oakville's commissioner of corporate services. He added that a number of nearby communities, including Mississauga, Brampton and Niagara Falls, have a ratio of about one cab per 1,500 people. Lalonde said the staff proposal would create a simple and easy-toadminister formula to replace the complicated method of issuing new plates now used by the town. "The population is an easy thing to understand it's open, transparent and can easily be made automatic," he said. Bill Perras, a lawyer representing Oakville United Taxi, said the cab company isn't opposed to a population ratio to determine the appropriate number of plates. However, he added that the current formula based on a number of factors including the town's population of seniors, the number of calls made for cabs and the number of licensed establishments in town results in an appropriate ratio of about 1 cab per 2,300 residents. Perras also suggested that Burlington, which has one cab for every 3,000 residents, would be the most appropriate city to compare to Oakville. The committee also heard that cab service is sometimes slowed up by rush hour traffic jams that clog up Oakville's roads, and does experience times of peak demand. "You can't build a new church for Easter Sunday," said local driver Jim Bolan, who explained people trickle down to bars and nightclubs Friday and Saturday evenings, but all want to leave at the same time when the bars close. A dispatcher from Oakville United Taxi told the committee that wait times average between five to 10 minutes most of the day, and between 10 and 15 minutes during the morning and evening rush hours. No official statistics on wait times have been gathered by either town staff or either of the local cab companies. Oakville's 66 licensed cabs currently provide about 43,000 rides a month. In addition to approving a ratio of one cab per 2,000 residents, the committee also agreed that town staff should further investigate changes to limousine licensing rules, licensing fees, the waiting list for cab plates and the leasing of cab plates. The recommendations from the Administrative Services committee must still be ratified by town council at its meeting on Monday, Oct. 29. ~SAT., Sat. 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