Calgary city council approves more wheelchair accessible taxis

Americas May 30, 2012

Calgary city council gave the green light to 55 new wheelchair accessible taxis on Monday night.

The city hopes a new strategy and new licences will improve taxi access. (Photo credit: ctvcalgary.ca)

The licence holders will have to operate at night and on weekends. The licences come with a few conditions:

• The holder of the plate must drive 981 hours per year
• The cab must be in service between 10:00 pm and 4:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

There will also be increased monitoring of existing taxi licences using GPS data and new reporting requirements will be implemented to make sure cabs are on the road when they are needed most.

The data will also be used to determine whether more licences are required in the future.

Currently, there are over 1,000 licenced taxis in Calgary, and that number hasn’t changed since 2006.

Critics say the city has done a poor job of consulting taxi drivers about the changes, but Mayor Naheed Nenshi says the changes are long overdue.