Reader: The free cab program is great -- until you try to find a taxi

Our hat's off to Denver attorney Michael Sawaya, whose law firm offered free taxi rides through the holiday season -- for the fourth year running! -- to drinkers who realize they shouldn't drive. There's just one roadblock to the project, as reveler blizzardo points out:...

By Patricia Calhoun

January 3, 2011

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Our hat's off to Denver attorney Michael Sawaya, whose law firm offered free taxi rides through the holiday season -- for the fourth year running! -- to drinkers who realize they shouldn't drive. There's just one roadblock to the project, as reveler blizzardo points out:

The problem on New Year's Eve is not paying for taxis, it's finding taxis. Westword should do a story about the city's attempts (if any) to alleviate this problem.

Blizzardo, it's more complicated than you might think: So far, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has stymied attempts by one group of cabbies to start a new company -- and Denver officials have told the PUC that they don't think there's any shortage of taxis in this town (which means they've never tried to find a cab in LoDo at 2 a.m. on any weekend night -- and forget New Year's Eve).

Those were among the fascinating revelations in Joel Warner's recent Westword story about Denver's taxi jam, "Mean Streets."

How long did you wait for a cab on New Year's Eve? Tell us in the comments section below. We'll forward them to the PUC. And in the meantime, you can read more bad taxi stories here.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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