Downtown ranking taxes patience of city black cab trade
Spaces for People measures have included changes to the area right outside The Balmoral hotel which was first lined with cones, then wands, widening the pavement there.
Wands are a more permanent measure, though still prone to being bashed about. For all the Covid-19 emergency measures, the council has put in cones first as an advisory, followed by more robust segregation. These measures are being paid for by £5 million of funding awarded to the council by The Scottish Government.
The 'layby' area outside The Balmoral is now unavailable to taxi drivers to use as a rank. It is still being used as a rank by some drivers, but it is not actually an official rank. Edinburgh Police have tweeted that they have engaged with drivers, reinforcing the terms of their licence. A spokesperson for the UNITE union's Edinburgh Cab Branch said: “We have repeatedly asked our members not to rank outside The Balmoral as it really does our trade no favours and just adds to the general traffic problems in the East End.
“As we gain more members, we are getting the message over to more and more drivers but unfortunately there are some taxi drivers who are only concerned about themselves and not the long term effect on the trade.
This is one of the reasons why we have asked The City of Edinburgh Council to provide a dedicated enforcement team to police both black taxis and private hire.
“Having enforcement officers targeting problematic hot-spots such as The Balmoral would definitely help to reduce the problem areas. One of the reasons why taxi drivers form these unofficial ranks is due to the fact that the trade has lost around 50 available rank spaces over the last few years.
“And also, whilst we agree with some of the new Active Streets measures brought in due to the need to socially distance because of Covid-19, some of these measures now make it impossible for a taxi to pull into the side of the road to either pick up or off load passengers - particularly when the passenger is in a wheelchair, with Morningside Road being a great example of this.
“We presented councillors with a traffic rank report that Unite put together and this was discussed at the council’s Licensing Meeting. We look forward to working with the council and are happy to offer them our input on how we can improve the traffic flow for all road users and pedestrians.
“We believe that we can offer them an insight into the city’s traffic problems from the perspective of the city's taxi drivers who are the eyes and ears and ambassadors of the city.”
The union's report makes interesting reading, showing that since the last council report in 2012, 48 taxi rank spaces have been lost, reducing spaces for the 1316 licensed taxis in Edinburgh to 247.
The union has also pointed out to the council that most ranks need repainted and signage added. Double yellow lines need to be added in most cases too, so that anyone parking there can be penalised.
The council did defer taxi licence fees for a period of three months, leading to a loss of income of £740,000 to the council, but this has now come to an end, despite appeals from the taxi trade.