Traffic Snarls Expected in Europe as Taxi Drivers Protest Against Uber - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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Traffic Snarls Expected in Europe as Taxi Drivers Protest Against Uber
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Several of Europe’s largest cities were snarled by traffic jams on Wednesday when thousands of taxi drivers blocked roads and held rallies in protest of an upstart American service that lets customers book rides through smartphones.
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Before the protest in London, Uber said on Wednesday that it had opened up its booking platform so that the city’s black taxis, which previously were not included in the start-up’s system, could now take bookings through the smartphone app.
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Europe’s taxi operators will demand that local lawmakers clamp down on the California-based Uber, which now operates in 100 cities in 36 countries.
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“In Paris, the number of taxis hasn’t changed since the 1950s,” said Pierre-Dimitry Gore-Coty, Uber’s regional general manager for Northern Europe. “The strikes are an attempt to desperately fight against competition in the market.”
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France has been one of Uber’s toughest battlegrounds. Faced with protests by the powerful local taxi industry, which has been closed to competition for decades, the government in December sought to curb the rise of Uber and rival upstarts by forcing the car services to wait 15 minutes after receiving a request before picking up a client.
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They also say the company’s technology, which allows drivers to use a smartphone-like device to calculate fares based on time and distance, breaks local laws. The city’s authorities have asked a local court to rule on that issue.
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Partly, London taxi drivers resent the idea of G.P.S.-equipped freelancers presuming to practice their time-honored craft.