Council Mulls New Taxi Rules To Consider at Next Meeting

Wearing the color of the Irish, and with pots of shamrocks on their desks, the Cambridge City Council gave the green light last night to further study of a perennial local debate over the regulation of city taxi service.

However, the eve of Saint Patrick's Day saw little good humor during an acrimonious four-hour hearing attended by 100 city cab drivers. Of the many proposals discussed, the councilors and members of the cab industry agreed on only one: a 25 percent increase in city cab fares. The increase would be the first in six years, a period which has seen a cumulative inflation of 37 percent.

The council heard testimony on a variety of proposed regulations of taxis and a report asking for more sweeping changes in the industry, prepared by the Cambridge License Commission.

But the only proposals accepted by the council were made by cab drivers who testified at the hearing. The first proposal establishes a larger number of taxi stands in the Central and Kendall Square areas, and another revises the application for taxi licenses.

The council is expected to take up the regulations as well as the issues raised in the report at its next meeting on Monday. If the council does not take action then, the License Commission will impose the regulations. These include tighter controls on the industry and increased license and inspection fees.

Several cab owners called the proposed regulations too restrictive. "We're cab drivers, not civil servants," complained Arthur Santoro, owner of the Campus Cab company.

Cab drivers also criticized the report submitted by the license commission.

In addition to a fare increase, the report calls for structural changes in the local taxi industry. These will later be submitted to the council as an ordinance. Other issues raised in the report include the creation of a taxi commission of city officals and elected representatives of the industry; new provisions for the elderly and handicapped who rely on cabs for transportation over short distances; and regulation of the radio dispatching services which serve independent drivers.

James T. McDavitt, chairman of the License Commission, which regulates taxi service in Cambridge, said the report was based on 12 hours of meetings with local cab drivers and owners, but several of those who testified termed its recommendations hasty and arbitrary.

Many echoed the sentiments of License Commission member and Cambridge Police Chief Anthony G. Paolillo, who abstained from the License Commission's vote to submit the report to the council. He has called for further investigation before drawing conclusions.

Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci said the taxi industry and its regulators have been continually at odds because there are no recognized spokesmen for the owners of the drivers. "There should be more input [into the regulation process]," he said, "but the fault lies with the industry itself because it is not organized."

Driver Michael Seguenza said a cabbies' organization is forming in response to the treatment they have received at past council hearings "You never understand the value of a fire extinguisher until you get burnt, and this year we got burnt," he said.

City Councilors Saundra Graham, Francis H. Duehay '55 and Alice Wolf said they had received complaints that independent cab drivers who use radio dispatching services frequently do not answer the less lucrative calls from passengers who wish to travel short distances. They said many of these people are elderly or handicapped, and depend heavily on cab service.

The councilors discussed solutions to this problem, including moving taxi stands closer to residential districts, so that a driver would not have to travel far to pick up a passenger at home; changing the fare structure to make short trips more lucrative; or requiring taxi drivers to pick up passengers referred to them by the radio dispatchers.