A Rank Situation
27th July 2009
Too many taxis are clogging up Cambridge's streets, causing traffic chaos.
The number of hackney carriages in the city has almost doubled over the past eight years and transport officials are trying to solve the traffic problems caused by taxis over-ranking in St Andrew's Street.
Cyclists and pedestrians are complaining about the high numbers of vehicles.
Glen Hall, chairman of taxi union City of Cambridge Licensed Taxis Ltd, accused councillors of "burying their heads in the sand" and called for them to reintroduce a cap on the number of taxis allowed.
There are now 297 hackney carriages in the city - almost double the 162 operating in 2001, when the limit was removed - as well as 199 private hire vehicles.
Mr Hall said: "Six spaces on St Andrew's Street for 300 cabs is just not enough.
"It's causing huge pollution because you have to circle around four or five times before you get a spot.
"The council have created the problem by delimiting the number of taxis, but they are burying their heads in the sand so they don't have to do a U-turn."
He added the union believed the number of city taxis was four times the recommended Office of Fair Trading level and would be pressing regulators to address the issue.
The problem was discussed by members of Cambridge's traffic management area joint committee, which heard the situation in St Andrew's Street could quickly turn from high demand, meaning no taxis were available, to over supply, which caused problems for pedestrians trying to cross the road and for cyclists who found themselves in conflict with buses when they moved to overtake queuing taxis.
Cllr Stuart Newbold, Labour's environment spokesman on Cambridge City Council, said: "There is a real problem in Cambridge with the number of taxis versus the number of ranks."
Richard Preston, the county council's head of network management, called for any action to be carefully considered, after a string of "failed" attempts to improve taxi rank arrangements in the city centre in recent years.
One of the proposals put forward was to create a rank in New Square, close to The Grafton shopping centre.
But Cllr Colin Rosenstiel, city councillor for Market, warned this could impact on the number of disabled spaces available for Blue Badge holders.
He said: "If you squeeze the balloon here, it expands somewhere else."
Cllr Kevin Blencowe, city councillor for Petersfield, added: "We have in effect created a problem in terms of increasing numbers yet decreasing rank spaces."
Other proposals put forward included promoting increased use of the Drummer Street rank, and encouraging passengers to hail passing cabs.
The report by council officers argued that efforts to remodel St Andrew's Street in 1996 and 2008 had failed to rectify the problem of over-ranking.
Concern was also raised that creating new taxi rank space could impact to any moves to create new bus stops and parking for cyclists and disabled motorists.
The report said: "Concerns have been raised by cyclists and pedestrians about the adverse impact that taxi over-ranking has on their access, echoing similar complaints from past years."
Source; CambridgeNewsOnline - cambridge-news.co.uk
Login
Register
FAQ
