merc december 4
Officials are hoping to bring taxi stands back to the downtown core in an effort to more effectively clear out the weekend bar crowd.
The effort gained some traction this week after a 21-year-old University of Guelph student was seriously injured early Sunday morning when he was struck by a cab on Gordon Street near Wellington Street.
It is believed the young man, who was airlifted to St. Michael’s Hospital and remains in serious condition, was trying to hail the taxi driven by a 42-year-old Guelph man.
That collision occurred a short distance from where another 21-year-old university student was struck and seriously injured shortly after 2 a.m. Oct. 31. Police arrested the driver — who was allegedly drunk and fled the scene — in that case, but believe the victim was trying to flag down a taxi when he was hit while standing in the southbound lane of Gordon.
“Our biggest goal is to try to move people out of the downtown as expeditiously as possible after the bars close,” said Ian Findlay, who represents city council on the Downtown Nightlife Task Force. “Certainly taxis are part of that discussion.”
At its latest meeting on Monday, the task force once again discussed the desire to reinstate taxi stands in the core and agreed to solicit input from the city’s two cab companies.
Two taxi stands were implemented during the five-week Project Safe Semester earlier this year “and it worked really well,” Findlay said. But when the pilot project ended, so did the taxi stands which had employed paid security guards.
Findlay said cabbies “seem to be crawling around the periphery of downtown where they are getting hailed and picking up fares.”
Not so, said Canadian Cab secretary/treasurer Jesse Mendoza.
Mendoza said cabs heading back downtown after dropping off fares are easy targets for passengers who make their way to the periphery of the core.
“We have to stop at red lights and stop signs and the kids aren’t stupid,” he said. “They know where to ambush you and the only options you have are give them a ride or lock your doors and risk having your car damaged.
“They just jump in front of you instead of waiting,” Mendoza said. “A lot of our guys are terrified they’re going to hit someone.”
It’s a legitimate concern, suggested Sgt. Peter Mitro of the Guelph Police traffic unit.
Mitro said while conducting RIDE spot checks, officers often see pedestrians “in various states of intoxication” trying to make their way home.
“They’re trying to stop cars thinking they’re cabs, even if they’re not cabs, by walking out into the road,” Mitro said, adding he has even had drunks trying to hail his cruiser “because they’re impaired and they just don’t have any judgment.”
Mitro said this weekend Guelph Police will conduct a blitz on Thursday through Saturday nights, watching for jay-walking and dangerous behaviour along Gordon Street from Waterloo Avenue to the Boathouse.
Pedestrians walking on the road will be given tickets, and those deemed to be a danger to themselves because of intoxication can expect a night in the station’s cells.
“We’ve got to get the message out to these young people,” Mitro said.
Mendoza and Red Top Taxi president Charles Dadd said if supervised taxi stands come back to the core their companies will do their best to make them work.
“We’ll certainly support them,” Dadd said. “We’ll do what we can to make them work.”
Mendoza suggests the city and cab companies are fighting a losing battle.
“No matter how much we try there’s just too much volume down there,” he said of the weekend bar crowd. “We could have a hundred cars on and we still couldn’t keep up after the bars let out. There’s never, ever going to be enough cabs downtown.”