Hail Laguna’s Taxi Experiment

Laguna Beach is a community that generally marches to its own tune, and now it plans to ride to its own meter. It will subsidize cab trips around town for locals at night as an alternative to expanding bus service.

This unusual transportation policy just might work in view of the city’s unique topography. Things are concentrated in Laguna in a way that could make such a city transit plan workable, unlike in a more sprawling suburb. The fact that this is a pilot program is good because it will give the city a chance to experiment.

The city seems perpetually engaged in trying to balance its attractions and the inconveniences that result. Earlier this year, it debated the use of periodic sobriety checkpoints.

Now, mindful once more of what the crush of visitors means for residents, the City Council has approved a pilot program that will subsidize evening taxi rides for residents who may be so frustrated by the parking crunch that they leave their own city for a night on the town.

Various rider subsidy programs have been tried for years in efforts to ease overcrowding on freeways or local streets in Southern California. Businesses long have subsidized employee mass transit passes and offered various incentives to carpool. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has paid people to ride in vans, and Ventura County has offered free taxi rides or rental cars to carpoolers who need to get home in an emergency.

In Laguna, residents and restaurateurs long have complained about the hassle of finding a place to park in town. There is a feeling that people must watch the meter. The city has 2,000 parking places, but only half of these are public--all competed for by residents and visitors. The question for the city was whether to extend the city’s bus service, which ends at 6 p.m., or try another solution.

The plan the council agreed to will offer residents $2 rides if they buy coupons at City Hall. Taxi companies will be reimbursed $8 for each trip, with the funding coming from a $20,000 transit fund administered by the Orange County Transportation Authority.

There may be concern whether this is too expensive to fund, or whether it will catch on at all. Fortunately, the program will be reviewed in June. This ought to allow the city ample time to evaluate its effectiveness.