Cabbies right to back down

Reason has triumphed after all, at least in Toronto.

Taxi drivers who were threatening to block afternoon rush-hour routes on the eve of the city’s NBA All-Star weekend have backed away from such reckless action. They were right to drop their ill-conceived protest against Uber, not just for the sake of stressed commuters — but for their own.

It was a different story in Montreal, where taxi and limousine drivers targeted airport traffic on Wednesday morning. Hundreds of cabs slowed movement to Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport. And as far away as London, England, thousands of black cabs brought the city to a standstill in a protest against Uber. This issue goes far beyond Toronto.

There’s no doubt that Uber, the hugely popular app-based ride-booking service, is causing widespread distress in the taxi industry. Cab drivers are losing passengers and money. But this grim situation would have only been aggravated by a rash plan to have Toronto-area taxis slow or stop rush-hour traffic on Highway 427, the Gardiner Expressway and the streets and ramps around the Air Canada Centre.

It was an absurd strategy, guaranteed to sap public sympathy for cabbies and drive more people to use Uber, the very outfit that protesters were trying to stop.

But that didn’t deter organizers of this misbegotten adventure from brashly demanding the shutdown of Uber’s controversial service and the resignation of Mayor John Tory, warning that they expected about 8,000 vehicles to participate in the protest.

They sang a different tune as they reversed course on Wednesday, amid mounting concern about the folly of disrupting thousands of people. And that’s not all; the protest would have also hampered the arrival of visitors coming to Toronto for the NBA All-Star Game and the International AutoShow over the weekend.

“Emotions overran us,” said Paul Sekhon, head of the United Taxi Workers Association, adding that frustrated cabbies didn’t know what else to do. Evidently, they now realize that hijacking the city isn’t the best way to proceed.

Before backing down, Sekhon said the protest was specifically timed to attract international media attention. It would have very likely succeeded in generating that — along with well-deserved loathing from the public at large.

No wonder some taxi operators urged cabbies to steer clear of the protest. Gail Beck-Souter, head of Beck Taxi, Toronto’s largest brokerage, wrote to drivers warning them that the demonstration would be counterproductive. “It would only hurt our valued customers and give Uber exactly what they want.” She was absolutely right. It’s understandable to sympathize with people in the taxi industry whose livelihood is threatened by a growing Internet-based “sharing economy.” Uber is an exemplar of this trend, putting passengers in touch with drivers of unmarked private cars instead of taxis. But sympathy for cabbies would be sure to evaporate if they take out their frustrations on the public.

The right way forward isn’t to ban Uber or try to force Tory into political exile.

The goal should be to serve the public better through new standards designed to regulate ride-sharing services while allowing them to operate. At the same time, the conventional taxi industry should be spared some of the statutory burdens that make it more difficult for it to compete.

This is what Edmonton has managed to do with a bylaw that balances the interests of taxis and ride-sharing services in a workable and fair manner.

City staff are working on just such an approach and it’s to be presented to city council this spring. Disrupting rush-hour traffic would not have made this reform come any faster, or made it easier to arrive at gains for taxi drivers.

The goal should be to serve the public better through new standards designed to regulate ride-sharing services. The conventional taxi industry should be spared some of the statutory burdens that make it more difficult for it to compete