{"id":51238,"date":"2021-11-12T21:59:05","date_gmt":"2021-11-13T02:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=51238"},"modified":"2021-11-12T22:00:07","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T03:00:07","slug":"lee-county-commissioners-may-deregulate-taxis-service-in-the-county-what-about-the-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/11\/lee-county-commissioners-may-deregulate-taxis-service-in-the-county-what-about-the-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee County Commissioners may deregulate taxi service in the county, what about the safety?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lee County commissioners want to get rid of taxi regulations. They said cab services should have an even playing field with companies like Uber and Lyft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"292\" height=\"173\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/download-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-51239\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, as stories of murder and sexual assault emerge all over the country, people may be losing faith in rideshare companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Lee County holds taxicab companies to a much higher standard than ride-sharing companies, such as Uber and Lyft, the stance could change soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brian Hamman, the commissioner for Lee County, said the Florida legislature had taken away the ability for the county to regulate Uber and Lyft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, taxi cab operators must go through extensive insurance and vehicle inspection checks with the county. The thoroughness puts taxi companies at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTaxi cabs might have to charge their customers more money in order to cover their government fees or pay for all the hoops I have to jump through,\u201d Hamman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The commissioner wants to deregulate taxicab companies, believing they would lower fares. But Phillip Griffin, owner of Bluebird Taxi, said not so fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/l.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-51240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/l.jpg 600w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/l-300x141.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just going to be to where anybody wants to jump into a car and call themselves a taxi,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to further dilute and increase the possibilities of problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Griffin said because of regulations, his riders knows every time they get into one of his taxicabs, they are safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marshelle Sommers said that is not the case with Uber and Lyft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1-45.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-51241\" width=\"213\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1-45.jpg 510w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1-45-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1-45-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1-45-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 213px) 100vw, 213px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t know who you\u2019re getting in the car with so anyone can pull up and say there with Uber,\u201d Sommers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cI feel like those people actually do it as a full-time job,\u201d Sommers said, \u201cwhereas people who Uber normally just do it on the side to make extra cash.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCertain amount of standards is necessary in the taxi business where people are getting into the car switch drivers don\u2019t know,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lee County commissioners want to get rid of taxi regulations. They said cab services should have an even playing field with companies like Uber and Lyft. Now, as stories of&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[863,864],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51244,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51238\/revisions\/51244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}