Taxis in Cardiff are still a big issue

We recently published some accounts of the rude and irresponsible behaviour of taxi drivers in Cardiff that is proving to be as much of a pressing problem now as it was when the issue was first raised over a year ago.

Taxi drivers are continuing to refusing to take girls home at night, claiming their journeys are too short, despite the obvious dangers and well known incidents of sexual assault around the city center and the university.

Nothing seems to have changed, and getting home at night safely is clearly still a struggle for many young women in Cardiff.

One student we spoke to, Chantelle, described how she was refused to be taken home by four taxis in one night, all saying that the distance was not long enough to be worth their while.

“If you go to where all the taxi’s wait, they’re in a queue sort of so obviously you approach the one at the front. They asked where we were going and he said to go to the taxi behind. I went up to four taxis and got told to go to the taxi behind by each one until I got to the one at the end, who told me to go to the front!”

It is clearly not an issue limited to a few isolated cases or particular drivers, but a wider problem that taxi companies as a whole need to address.

Chantelle said:

“I started arguing with them, saying that one of them had to take us and how it was illegal to refuse us. He started driving off as my head was still in the window talking to him.”

It shouldn’t be this difficult to get a taxi home in safety, and taxi drivers must start acting responsibly and fully providing the service they claim to operate.

Another student, Ella, described what happened to her:

“In October this year when leaving Pryzm, a friend and I were trying to find a taxi that would take us back to Cathays. The first driver demanded a fixed fee and refused to put the journey on the meter, so we got out thinking we could get another taxi. But as we went down the line it quickly became clear that all of the drivers had agreed on the charge and none would turn the meter on.”

Taxi drivers are still acting irresponsibly and taking advantage of students trying to get home quickly and safely. They are still abusing their positions.

Ella said that the behaviour and attitudes of the drivers “caused me and my friend to walk home instead.”

She said,  “I was lucky I was with her. If I’d been on my own I was in no fit state to be walking that far and could have really been hurt.”