It was a Friday night in June when former Lyft driver Yago Rodriguez picked up four women in Santa Monica outside the Buffalo Club and unknowingly drove his vehicle into a sly game of bumper cars. Rodriguez (who has asked not to be identified by name) was about to pull away from the curb when, he says, a taxi hit his front bumper — the very bumper plastered with Lyft's famous fuzzy pink mustache.
"That's when I felt another hit from behind," Rodriguez says. "Another cab had bumped into my rear bumper."
Rodriguez says the women started to panic, but he calmed them by saying he would handle it.
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The driver threw up his hands and peeled away.
A Lyft spokeswoman did not respond to the Weekly's request for comment by press time.
Lt. Richard Lewis of the Santa Monica Police Department says no reports have been filed about altercations between Lyft and taxicab drivers. However, Lewis says numerous Lyft drivers have been cited for failing to comply with local ordinances, and "there have been stings to make sure they're operating in compliance with the law."
Over the last few months, tensions in the region have grown between traditional taxi drivers and Lyft drivers, ever since a letter from L.A. city officials ordered Lyft — and similar, taxi-like services Uber and SideCar, all of which transport citizens to various locations (arranged via a smartphone application) — to shut down.
Taxi drivers are reporting a slump in business, and some drivers have defected to Uber and Lyft. In late July, the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) issued a proposal that would allow companies like Lyft to continue to operate in California as Transportation Network Companies, dealing another blow to the taxicab industry — and adding to the tumultuous environment.
"We were driving down Venice Boulevard," Rodriguez says, recalling another incident in June, "and a cabdriver was on the right side. He was waving his fists at my passengers and yelling at them. Then he cut me off and nearly T-boned me. He jumped out of the car and started to write down my license plate number."
A source at the Santa Monica Police Department acknowledges that there have been "grumblings" about altercations between Lyft and taxicab drivers. In particular, some Lyft drivers avoid LAX, which is considered unsafe territory, with its hoards of cabdrivers capable of joining together against a lone, pink-mustached Lyft car.
Rodriguez says Lyft actually advised its drivers to approach LAX at their own risk and only if they felt safe doing so.
Taxicab drivers are upset about the incursions on their livelihood, and are directing their anger toward the new industry. But there is more going on here than new competition. The cabbies themselves say the creaky, antique nature of their industry and its rules also are to blame.
At the Authorized Taxicab Supervision (ATS) holding area adjacent to LAX on a recent Tuesday, yellow, green and blue cabs from all nine taxi companies franchised by the city of Los Angeles to pick up passengers within city limits are parked as planes fly overhead and land several hundred yards away.
Many of the taxi drivers are waiting their turn to pick up passengers, smoking cigarettes underneath a freeway on-ramp. Some are immigrants — Eastern European, Pakistani, Indian — who struggle to find the words in English to express their frustration, but it's clear it stems from the idea that Lyft and Uber don't have to follow the same rules they must.
They are frustrated because they are required to wait in this holding lot for passengers at LAX, while Lyft and Uber are allowed to operate freely, which means they also can avoid passing on extra fees to their passengers.
The Authorized Taxicab Supervision system was created to maintain order and safety at LAX, as well as keep out bandit taxis. Fares from the airport are longer and usually the best money, so there is a lot of competition. In 2007, then–L.A. City Controller Laura Chick issued a report, "Audit of the City's Contract With Authorized Taxicab Supervision Inc." Chick found that an "award of a sole-source contract to ATS may not be in the best interest of the city."
Under ATS regulations, each cabdriver is restricted to a five-day rotation, which corresponds to a letter on his taxi. Before each pickup, the cabbie must pass an electronic gate, where a $4 fee is deducted automatically from his ATS debit card. That fee is divvied up between Los Angeles World Airports and the ATS bureaucracy. The passenger actually pays the $4 fee on top of the fare.
"I can't get a state license as a taxi driver," says Mesfin Tadesse, a driver for United Independent Taxi. He is referring to Lyft drivers and their ability to operate as Transportation Network Companies and thus avoid regulations imposed upon taxis by local ordinances. "My license is under the city of Los Angeles. ... You are chained by the city rule."
Rouse is right. Creating two separate systems for taxis will degrade the city’s system overall. Eventually, all of the taxi companies will move over to the cheaper way of operating that holds no responsibility to the community. Then, "less lucrative" areas of the grid will see spotty to terrible service. Poor people trying to conduct their lives using a taxi will be screwed.
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Yago Rodriguez oh you.. haha wish i could expose you .. you and your wild stories. none of them were believable! now you're publicly making up stories? I feel bad for Joseph A lapin your source is 100 percent mentally unstable
If the cabs hate it so much you know lyft must be a great service. Download the app to your smart phone, sign up for an account and use this promo code for 10 dollars off your first ride:
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God bless,
Frank
What so many people are perhaps willingly blind to is that Lyft etc are really just taxis -- not an "alternative" to taxis. And what is causing this aggravation among drivers? Oversupply due to the effective deregulation of the market that Lyft and friends have brought to the scene. So one group of drivers box one of the other guys in, he pulls out a knife and threatens them off. This is something to celebrate? I think not. This is the future of the cab industry as Lyft, Uber and eventually a host of others will flood the market, make drivers increasingly desperate (and potentially violent) and drag the whole industry into a race to the bottom.
Good the uber sidecar and lyft is here in la they provide execlen service.taxi mafia stop crying and improve your service.
Good the uber sidecar and lyft have can to la we need it is the best service ever taxi mafia feel the heat good cause of the old system they have and they want to invest money to improvetheir service.
Haha, beware the formation of the Cabbie Mafia, coming to an airport near you.
News flash cabbies: everyone hates you. Everyone hates your high rates, your terrible driving, your surly attitudes, and your monopoly on business. I used Uber last week for an airport ride and it was awesome. The free market is a bitch when your service is crap. Suck it.
Is this what America has come to? Two taxi drives assaulting another driver and then that driver pulling a knife which is equally wrong and threatening the other driver. Really? Is this what we want our city, our state, and our nation to be like? I can tell you what is about. It is that Americans have lost their respect and trust in government to represent them because our government--especially Santa Monica which is widely known in legal circles to be corrupt in the sense you can get anything you want if you have the right political connection and that also means money--this is a well known fact about lawyers. Beyond, Santa Monica needs to develop a zero tolerance policy towards our growing problems. Violence committed by the homeless? It is growing everyday. Crack down and I mean a total crack down on drivers who speed which has gotten out of hand on 5th and 6th north of Wilshire. Drivers who do not stop at stop signs must now days do not even slow down into anything close to a stop. Threatening pedestrians. Instead I see our police force wandering around aimless looking tough and do absolutely completely nothing.
The lawless ness described in this article is growing in Santa Monica and needs to stop. It starts with the police enforcing the basic rules. and the Santa Monica police finds that beneath their new tough guy image.
He asked it to be identified by name, so your obvious first thing to do would be to dishonor his sole request and publish his name anyways?!? What a dishonorable business practice! Good luck getting further interviews from anyone who wishes to remain anonymous. You should be ashamed of yourself.
@bywayofpdx You've listed pretty much everything wrong with the vast majority of taxicab service.
Alternatives to traditional cab services appear. A market/customer base instantly appears. Alternative businesses are now successful.
When the market speaks, you need to listen. The market, and the competing businesses are not the problem...YOU are. So quit crying, big taxi companies, and learn how to compete in the new world. Your political protections can't help you anymore.
P.S. How hard is Rodriguez? Rolls around the job with a bowie just in case he needs to threaten to cut someone? Damn, I hope he sticks around so he can be my private driver. I'm sick of all those stink eyes I'm getting in the Ralph's parking lot.
And still Santa Monica has more rules and laws than any other so cal city, so much for stupid excess liberal laws working to solve real world problems. Everything you buy in a grocery store now comes in a plastic bottle or jar, and what do they do, ban plastic bags. Parking is frikn insane, what is it now, 25 cents for 6 minutes , and they wonder why their businesses are failing at record rates.
@church.william.thoma "Is this what America has come to?" Really?
We're sorry for all the trouble going on in Santa Elysium Monica.
In the meantime - we have an industry that has become complacent in it's existence, to the point of public loathing, where the market has birthed a new (and, IMHO much better) option, to which the old guard reacts by thrashing out blindly in order to protect itself.
Sound familiar? It should (or you need a lesson in history both short and long):
American Revolution (How we, um… Started…)
Knights of Labor
American Federation of Labor
Teamsters
AFL-CIO
Mafia
etc…
ALL (and by ALL I mean 'ALL') started, included, and continue (or finished) with:
Thuggery
Corruption
various incarnations of legality/illegality
I'm not even an organized labor sympathizer - but this behavior should not (and, in large part, I believe does not) surprise or shock anyone.
@danana1773 Perhaps Yago is not his actual name, but they used Yago rather than Lyft Drive #1
@thomas-klein Well, I do not know about business falling in Santa Monica. The town looks healthy to me but as to laws, there is a definite relationship to power and passing laws. The more laws, regulations, difficult zoning and approval, the more powerful the City Council is and the more they can get paid for their influence. The payoff may not be direct as in cash under the table but it is about quid pro quo favors and power. We will always have problems as long as people see it as their job to pass laws and regulations and there will be people who want to pay money to get influence. It is the way America works. It is as corrupt as Africa but just a different form.
@ericediger @church.william.thoma
Dear Friend, I hardly need a lesson in history. Over a 18 months ago I compared this period of history to right before the French Revolution: high public debt from wars, gross income and wealth inequalities, and a total distrust of the government, inability to fund social programs and inability to reform tax structure to pay for the debt.
From my analysis of observing the taxi industry in Santa Monica is that is basically a mafia (I do not mean Italian mafia) run deal. One or two companies have a strangle hold on the deal and this was granted to them by the City Council. My second guess is that the bribe they paid to get that monopoly was very very high and now that someone who did not bribe the important people (read corrupt) in Santa Monica is getting to operate here and cutting into the area of drivers who thought they had paid for protection when they paid that bribe.
Feeling betrayed they resort to their own measures because they know that the police are part of the overall corruption of the town.
To clarify, Santa Monica is no worse or better than the overall society it sits in. American has been turned over to the money interests, special power brokers, deal makers, and in no way shape or form represents anything that could be seen as democracy today. The Santa Monica City Council throws out special bones to keep certain people quiet. "Ok lets keep rent control which keeps people happy" and now that you are looking in the other way lets do something else that is against your interest that will generate a personal pay back for the power brokers.
America has the best government that money can buy.
@scottzwartz @danana1773 I know who this was and that is not his real name. The guy is also just a bit off mentally. The instances of any kind of interaction between cabs and Lyfts at all is incredibly low-- 99.99% of the time, taxis don't even take notice of Lyfts, but don't let that get in the way of a dramatic story. And this guy loved to tell this taxi showdown story (whether it happened or not), and didn't see anything odd about carrying an enormous knife kept in view of passengers.
It's understandable that taxis would feel like Lyft is their competition, but in reality, every other citizen with a car is their competition. Their business model has been based essentially on profiting from a dysfunction in communities: the unwillingness of people to do a kindness for a neighbor. That's what changing.
@ericediger @church.william.thoma
Please, you sound educated so I should not have to explain the premise of a rhetorical question.
@church.william.thoma But... But... But... Your (silly) premise was: "Is this what America has come to?"
If whatever analysis and observation you've endeavored in leads you to head scratch that, then you're reading too much idealistic fiction...
And to say that "Santa Monica is no worse or better than the overall society it sits in" just shows the Elysium-like earmuffs you've got on… Just ask Venice - that's where all the homeless people went when SM made it illegal to be homeless there (circa 2003).
Oh, and a technical correction:
"American has been" Should be: "American has ALWAYS been"
Since day 1.
@myvoicenation6@scottzwartz@danana1773Insightful comment. Perhaps Yago uses a false name because he has a false story.
Isn't there supposed to be something about two sources, especially with an anonymous source.
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