Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Safety changes being planned for city cabbies

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 01:56:19 -0500

Posted on Mon, Nov. 03, 2003

Safety changes being planned for city cabbies

By DANA DiFILIPPO
[email-masked]
City cab riders could soon see big changes - including panic buttons,
filth-free seats and quick dispatch service - under a taxi-industry
overhaul that the Philadelphia Parking Authority aims to implement next
year.

The Parking Authority will take over control of the 1,600-taxi fleet
from the Public Utility Commission next July.
In the meantime, the authority has formed an advisory committee to
examine how to make city cabs safer, cleaner and more "hospitable" for
drivers and passengers alike.

The committee expects to release its recommendations by the end of the
year, said Richard Dickson, the authority's director of on-street
parking.

Recommendations will address driver training, equipment quality and
safety issues. Mandated changes will be covered by a $2 million PUC
fund.

Safety changes could include global-positioning systems to track stolen
taxis or cabbies in crisis, digital video-cameras to discourage or catch
criminals, safety partitions between drivers and passengers, and hijack
lights in the cab's grill or bumper to alert passers-by that the driver
is in trouble.

Such measures could prevent senseless deaths like Santos', said James L.
Szekely Sr., president of the International Taxi Drivers.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/7169224.htm

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