Uber arrived in Los Angeles a decade ago, and along with Lyft and other competitors brought the region’s taxi industry to its knees.
Competing against the venture capital-funded apps, taxi companies shrank or went out of business and drivers left in droves. As the small industry grappled to find new technology, it also blamed regulators for besetting it with rules the new companies evaded.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council threw the taxi industry a lifeline. The council unanimously approved an ordinance that overhauls the city-regulated franchise system and gives approved ride-hailing applications access to traffic and other city data intended to make dispatching riders more efficient.
“This is designed to basically make the taxi companies competitive in the modern world,” said Eric Spiegelman, president of the city’s Taxi Commission. “To the regular Angeleno, I hope they are going to see taxis as something integral into how they get around town in a way that Uber and Lyft were for the last couple of years.”
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