(Credti: City of Glens Falls)
Steve Thurston (2021)
The final, updated regulations proposed for taxicabs in Glens Falls are nearly complete, and the Common Council has kept open a public hearing on them until they are finalized. The council likely will not vote on the measure until they have fully worked out the schedule for fares, fees, fines and other enforcement costs.
The Special Projects Committee has been handling the revisions, and Ward 5 Councilor Mary Gooden, chair of the committee, said they expect to make those final decisions at their Tuesday Nov. 15 meeting. The Common Council meets again Nov. 22.
In the past, the schedule of fares was part of the ordinance itself, but that language has been struck from the draft law. Instead, the council is required to look annually at the fares a taxi company may charge. The council may then change the fares via a resolution, a much simpler process than changing the ordinance itself.
[Read our earlier coverage of the law here.]
Stricken from the law is the “zoned” cab fare. The expectation is that cabs will have set fees per ride. In an earlier story, the expected fare would move from about $4 per ride to $12 or $15. Senior citizens and people of modest means would have access to vouchers which could be used to pay for or subsidize a ride, officials said.
How the vouchers would be distributed to those in need has not been determined.
“What we figured is that we could get them to people at family services…or the senior citizen centers,” Mayor Bill Collins said during the common council meeting Nov. 8. “At the end of the month, the taxicab company brings them [the vouchers] to the city and we’ll reimburse them."
Ward 3 Councilor Diana Palmer wondered aloud how much the tokens would be used, and from a budgetary perspective, how much the city was looking to subsidize.
“That we don’t know. That’s the one thing we really don’t know,” Gooden replied. “It’ll be our first year, so we’ll see.”
In the new law:
- Cabs may place advertisements inside and outside the car; that had been forbidden.
- At least 17 taxicab stands have been established throughout the downtown Glens Falls core; they had to be approved by the city safety committee.
- The cab drivers must be licensed with the city.
- The cab companies no longer need to have an office in the city; that was a major problem for cab companies, owners told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com in the past.
The law does not affect Uber, Lyft or other ride-hailing services since they are regulated by the state.