Taxi drivers hate them, bar patrons ignore them. The six-month pilot project to have late-night taxi stands on the weekend has gotten off to a rocky start, but the City of Victoria insists it's the best way to clear the crowds from the streets when the bars let out.
"It's crazy, we hate them," said Victoria Taxi driver John Sturdy. "It's like herding cats, expecting all these drunk people to go to these taxi stands in an orderly fashion."
In November, the city implemented three taxi stands where people must line up if they want to get a cab between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which is when taxi drivers are run off their wheels trying to get the throngs of drunken partiers home safely.
It was part of the late-night downtown task force's strategy for dealing with public urination, noise and rowdiness that hits the streets when the bars let out.
The stands are located on Douglas Street between View and Fort streets just north of the Strathcona Hotel, on Government and View streets near Bastion Square, and Pandora Avenue at Government Street, close to Centennial Square and the city's new public urinal.
The goal was to have people queue up at stands in well-lit areas near urinals and staffed by commissionaires to deal with troublemakers.
But taxi drivers say they are getting bullied into lining up at the taxi stands, forcing them to drive by customers flagging them down on the street.
Almost 200 Victoria Taxi drivers, most of whom work the night shift, have signed a petition against the stands, said the company's general manager Jean Grimshaw.
"Drivers don't want to pass a customer to drive to a stand where there's already cars," she said.
The city also hoped to move people out of the downtown core quickly but many drivers say waiting behind other cabs to get to a fare is actually slowing things down. "We don't make as many trips," Sturdy said.
Grimshaw recalls a scenario where an intoxicated girl hopped into a cab stopped at a red light. A commissionaire intervened and told the driver he
couldn't pick her up there. "The cab driver said, 'OK, you get her out of the cab,' " Grimshaw recalls. The girl refused, so the Victoria police were called, and 20 minutes after the girl got in the cab, police finally let the driver take the girl home.
As for bar patrons, many of them know nothing of the taxi stands and the ones that do prefer to keep flagging down cabs on the street.
Three men in their late 20s on their way to Big Bad John's one recent Saturday night said they knew about the taxi stands. Do they use them? "No," the three said in unison.
Matt Magi and Sarah Iles, both 24, said they once waited patiently at the taxi stand, only to watch in frustration as more zealous individuals snagged one down the road.
"If everyone abides by it, it would work," Magi said. "Right now it doesn't seem to be working."
City councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe, who sits on the task force, said it's a matter of better educating the public about the taxi zones, having more signs that advertise their locations and getting taxi drivers to buy in.
She also said a task-force subcommittee of city staff and delegates from the taxi companies have decided to scrap the two Government Street stands and are looking at other crowded, after-hours spots, such as in front of the Second Slice eatery on Douglas Street.
B.C. Taxi Association president Mohan Kang, who sits on the sub-committee, said the stands ultimately keep drivers safe, because drunk or aggressive patrons are dealt with by commissionaires. "We believe this is a good idea and we will work on [improving] it."
