HomeMy WebLinkAboutTaxi Advisory Committee Minutes February 11, 2010_201402041306555561Taxi Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes February 11, 2010
Meeting called to order 10:00am
Location, 2 Fairgrounds Conference Room
Members Present: Lt. Angus Macvicar, John O’Connor, Jon St. Laurent, David Sharpe,
David Larivee, Wendy Watts
Absent: Mitch Carl
The first item on the agenda regarded number of taxi vehicle licenses. Jon St. Laurent
presented a list from the Nantucket Taxi Owners’ Association on some of the reasons the
taxi business has been steadily decreasing over the past several years. Some of the
contributing factors have been an increase in the number of hotel shuttles, parking rates at
the Nantucket Memorial Airport, a decrease in the number of hotel rooms, number of
rental cars, a change in demographics and rouge cabs. Some of the indicators of the
decrease in taxi business could be supported by the decrease in ridership on the NRTA,
and the shortage of parking spaces in the taxi stands as cabs are sitting around more
often. The NTOA asked for a reduction through attrition from 62 to 52.
Wendy Watts commented that in her opinion a municipality funded business such as the
NRTA should not be competing with a private industry such as the taxis who are
struggling to survive.
The subject of taxi stands was brought up in respect to how some of them may be
changed to improve availability of the taxis, it was agreed that this will be a subject of a
future meeting.
One of the options which was discussed as an alterative to decreasing the number of taxis
was revisiting the idea of seasonal taxi licenses. It was agreed by the committee that the
topic of number of taxis will be tabled for a later meeting.
The second letter to the Taxi Owners: Ms. Watts had presented for review the second
letter from the TAC to be sent to the owners. The committee voted and unanimously
approved the letter and also that we will be sending letters out twice a year, pre and post
season, rather than quarterly.
David Larivee brought up the topic of the proposed plan of the NRTA and others to
establish a Park and Ride at the new lot at 2 Fairgrounds. This will be on the agenda for
the March 16, 2010 meeting.
Ken Murray questioned the procedure for renewing ones place on the taxi waiting list as
every year the dates to sign up have changed. This will be a topic on the agenda for the
March 16, 2010 meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 11:30am