GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Parking zones for licensed taxi cabs are being marked downtown as the city tries to accommodate an industry threatened by ridesharing businesses like Uber.

Five zones debuting this week, and possibly another nine, are among several changes to the city's taxicab rules. The zones, exclusively dedicated to taxis either 24 hours a day or at night and into the early morning, enable cab drivers to park and wait for a customer.

"The city is very congested downtown. It's very hard for a taxi to just sit any place to pick up a fare," said Karen Huyser, owner of Calder City Taxi. "Unless they're specifically called, it's difficult for them to get a ride.

"It's much simpler for them to know where these taxi cab zones are. They can sit there as long as it takes."

The five zones getting signs this week:

• In front of DeVos Place, on the west side of Monroe Avenue near Michigan Street; 24-hour zone

• On the east side of Grandville Avenue SW near Rapid Central Station across from Founders Brewing Co.; 24-hour zone

• On the south side of Pearl Street at Monroe Center near Rosa Parks Circle; 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily zone

• Near the JW Marriott hotel on the east side of Campau Avenue; 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily zone

• On the south side of Weston Street at Ionia Avenue near Van Andel Arena; 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily zone



Nine other zones also have been proposed. See the map, at right, or click here for a .pdf.

Debut of those additional zones is pending ongoing talks with cab companies, city spokesman Steve Guitar said.

"We're not going to put anything up if they don't think the area's going to be conducive to business," he said.

The taxi zones are among several changes Grand Rapids leaders approved this spring. Cabs now can sport advertising, and companies no longer are required to have a brick-and-mortar headquarters or $50,000 in assets to do business.

"We said we're not going to regulate Uber," First Ward City Commissioner Dave Shaffer said in May, when the changes were approved. "Why don't we remove as many regulations and barriers (on taxi cabs) as we can? We really need to try to be fair to the taxi cab industry."

Still, the new taxi zones likely won't be much help to smaller cab companies, said Lendy Sosa, manager of My Taxi Service. His five-vehicle company's cab fares come mostly from customers who call for service.

"It doesn't really make a lot of difference to us," Sosa said. "We go (downtown) when we don't have anything to do."

A bigger problem for cab companies is the licensing and other regulations like drug screens that they face but Uber does not, he said.

There are six taxi cab companies licensed in Grand Rapids, with 153 drivers, according to city data.

Matt Vande Bunte writes about government and other issues on MLive. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.