Cambridge Wrong To Oppose Shuttle

Since its arrival in Harvard Square two months ago, U.S. Shuttle has done considerable business, drawing thousands of travelers looking to get to the airport without paying a $20 to $25 cab fare or lugging tons of bags through 3 different T lines.

According to James T. Wall, the general manager of the shuttle, the service takes roughly 3,000 people in and out of Cambridge each month. The Undergraduate Council even made a Thanksgiving deal with the company in which U.S. Shuttle sold tickets to students at $6 instead of the usual $8.

Due to its popularity with travelers, the U.S. Shuttle has incurred the wrath of Cambridge taxi drivers and their friends on the Cambridge City Council. Many taxi drivers have complained that they are losing $50 to $100 a day to the shuttle service. For this reason, the City Council has been opposed to the shuttle from day one. The only reason the shuttle has been able to operate at all is that the council has heretofore been powerless to stop it, since the company is licensed by the state of Massachusetts.

That may change, however. Two weeks ago the council petitioned the state legislature to allow it to have final say on all private transportation services that operate in the city. If it gains this power, it will surely ban the new shuttle.

By making travel to and from Cambridge easier, the shuttles will improve the local quality of life. The time saved by not relying on the T to get to the airport may be more productively spent on work or at play. Fewer taxis zooming in and out of the Square will mean less traffic and less pollution. And the money not used on taxi fare may be spent in Cambridge's shops and restaurants.

Moreover, the shuttle's impact on cab demand may be less significant than some believe. Cambridge's poor are more likely to rely on the Boston area's public transportation system than on taxi service. The elderly can still call cabs for door-to-door service. And plenty of people will continue to prefer the immediate availability of a cab to waiting for a shuttle or calling for one in advance.

There is one legitimate complaint that cab drivers can raise, however, and that is the fact that they are required to pay an $85,000 medallion fee in order to operate in Cambridge, while the U.S. Shuttle gets off scot-free. While cab drivers point out that the U.S. Shuttle can offer low prices because it doesn't have to pay the $85,000 medallion fee, this one-time licensing gives the right to operate as a taxi and provide services the U.S. Shuttle does not.

Alas, the city council of Cambridge--the only city government that has refused to license the U.S. Shuttle--also seems intent on becoming the only to actively remove it from its community. We urge the council not to think merely of one constituency but of the community as a whole.