Taxi burden

Improving Access to Taxis (De)Regulation of the Taxi Industry

There are roughly 45 million disabled people living in Europe, but how do they and elderly people like to get around? They would call a taxi. The combination of the personal service that taxis offer, their wide availability and door-to-door operations enable them to respond particularly well to this population’s special travel needs. Although several countries have made progress in improving the accessibility of taxi services, much remains to be done.

Recommendations on taxi vehicle design take a two-tiered approach: Type One for wheelchair accessible taxis, Type Two for standard accessible taxis. The recommendations are intended to be phased in within a reasonable time period–not necessarily to be implemented immediately. The study points out that good vehicle design alone is not sufficient to ensure accessibility, and explores other factors, including infrastructure and driver training, that, together with design, will lead to the development of a taxi service that is genuinely fully accessible.

Improving Access to Taxis, a study by the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) and the International Road Transport Union, examines the design and manufacture of taxi vehicles, practical measures to increase the production and use of accessible taxis, plus working on infrastructure and driver training.

Of course, for taxis to really work for the elderly and everyone else, you have to be able to find one. Another book, (De)Regulation of the Taxi Industry, drawn from an ECMT round table, examines the case for liberalising the taxi industry across Europe. Experiences with deregulating the taxi industry have had mixed results, though liberalising the market has generally led to massive new entry, leading to shorter waiting times. In fact, the case could be made that this, as well as economies of density, warrant subsidies for entry. If you are reading this in a cab line, you will probably agree.

Improving Access to Taxis, ISBN: 9789282101032

(De)Regulation of the Taxi Industry, ISBN: 9789282101124

©OECD Observer No 261 May 2007

See www.cemt.org