SF to issue more taxi permits S.F. to issue up to 200 permits to ease crunch

Catching a cab in San Francisco, the bane of many downtown workers, weekend revelers and tourists, will soon become a little easier.

The Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors decided Tuesday to put an additional 150 to 200 taxis on the streets over the next few months. The board, on a 6-0 vote, with Director Leona Bridges absent, approved the temporary full-time operating permits in an effort to improve the public's chances of getting a taxi.

"One of the most common complaints we hear as a board is that it can be difficult to find a taxi," said Tom Nolan, the board chairman. "This plan is not the final step, but a significant one, that will help improve service for those who live, work and visit San Francisco."

Demand for taxis in San Francisco far outstrips their availability, said Ed Reiskin, the agency's transportation director. He predicted that a consultant's study, expected in January, will probably provide dramatic evidence of that need. But with big events such as America's Cup and Fleet Week coming soon, and the holiday season approaching, he recommended that the board increase the number of taxis on the streets now.

"It was important not to wait for another four to five months," he said.

The permits, which will be issued directly to taxi companies, will last up to three years, and will be tied to each company's performance responding to calls. According to a study conducted by the Police Department's taxi detail in 2000, taxis showed up at just 40 percent of dispatched destinations.

While that data is a dozen years old, a parade of speakers from tourist agencies, business groups and taxi companies testified to a dire shortage of taxis, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.

"One of the biggest complaints we receive, time and time again, from convention planners is that there is not enough taxi service in the city," said John Ballestreros, a San Francisco Travel Association vice president, at Tuesday's meeting.

The difficulty getting a cab has created a culture in which people call three or four companies and take the first taxi that arrives, often standing in front of their home or business and trying to flag one down as well. And in recent years, it's generated a new industry that allows people needing rides to use their smartphones to arrange for a town car to pick them up. Those companies, including Uber and Lyft, have so far managed to evade city regulation, to the dismay of cab companies and drivers.

"You've seen a proliferation of taxi-replacement companies preying on the fact that it is impossible to get a taxi in San Francisco," said Tim Csontos, a vice president for Taxi Magic, a firm that allows people to summon cabs electronically.

Cab drivers, however, insist that there is no shortage of taxis outside of Friday and Saturday nights, and said they can spend hours waiting for fares. Putting more cabs on the streets, they said, will only erode their already meager earnings.

"It's amazing to me; it seems like I'm working in a different city," said Martin Kazinski, a driver for Green Cab, after listening to tales of taxi shortages.

The additional cabs will begin hitting the streets in about 30 days, said Paul Rose, a spokesman for the agency, but it will take a few months for the companies to get enough vehicles and drivers for all of the extra permits. San Francisco currently has 1,535 taxis licensed to operate full time, which requires two 10-hours shifts daily.

During the past two years, the agency, which also oversees transit, traffic and parking, has made efforts to change the way taxi permits are issued, increase the number of taxis in service and raise the revenue they bring in to the city. Each new operating permit will cost about $1,900 a month, bringing in up to $4.6 million a year.