Cabdriver Abdikadir Abdisalan and Institute for Justice Attorney Keith Diggs talk to the press outside of the Hall of Justice, where a judge heard arguments for and against an injunction on the city’s plan to issue more taxi permits, April 28, 2015. | Photo Credit: Megan Burks
By Megan Burks
A judge has ruled the city of San Diego and a regional transit agency can move forward with plans to issue new taxi permits.
Existing permit holders had called for an injunction following the city’s decision to lift a decades-old cap on permits. That cap held the number cabs on San Diego roadways at 993 and largely prevented new cab companies from gaining a foothold in the industry.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Ronald Prager denied the injunction late Tuesday making way for the Metropolitan Transit System to continue processing the 1,516 permit requests taxi drivers began filing in March.
“I am very relieved that I can go forward with my permit application and start my own taxi business for myself and my family,” Abebe Antallo, a driver and organizer with United Taxi Workers of San Diego, said in a press release.
At the center of the permit holders’ legal challenge, which must move through the courts despite the injunction ruling, is a claim that the city should have conducted an environmental review before deciding to open the taxi market. In hearings leading up to the decision, several permit holders warned lifting the cap could multiply the number of smog-producing taxis idling in taxi queues.
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In his ruling, Prager called the environmental challenge “speculative and unsupported.”
Councilwoman Marti Emerald said in March she expects the majority of permit applicants will have already been driving leased taxicabs, meaning they won’t be new to the industry but would begin working for themselves instead of a cab company. And under the new taxi regulations, their vehicles would need to be newer, low-emission models.
A representative for the permit holders in the case could not immediately be reached for comment.
Emerald pushed to open the taxi market after a San Diego State and Center on Policy Initiatives study found drivers who leased cabs from permit holders had to work long hours to cover high leases and netted less than minimum wage. Permit holders have said they believe the study was flawed and the figures exaggerated.
Judge Prager’s ruling also allows two drivers to present arguments as interveners as the case moves forward. Otherwise, only permit holders and a deputy city attorney would have appeared before a judge.