Readers React: No tears for taxi drivers struggling because of Uber and Lyft

To the editor: The decline of cab drivers and of the income their companies receive is, to me, comeuppance for their greed years ago in lobbying to keep non-vehicle modes of transportation out of Los Angeles International Airport. (“Uber and Lyft have devastated L.A.’s taxi industry, city records show,” April 14)

In major airports throughout the world, rail transportation directly to the terminal is the reality. At LAX, it still appears as if public transportation is all but prohibited.

The Green Line is about as useless as yesterday’s newspaper. I’ve tried once to get to LAX using it, only to be dumped off the system about a mile and half from the airport and forced to wait for a shuttle. Uber or Lyft gets me there with a quoted price not subject to the taxi metering system.

That the drivers themselves are losing out bothers me, but the lack of rail transportation to the airport is partly the result of their lobbyists winning over politically inclined commissions.

Eric David, Long Beach

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To the editor: Let’s all weep for the poor, poor cab companies in Los Angeles. It seems that Uber and Lyft are leaving them at the curb.

With the highest fares in the nation, not to mention being impossible to hail or to find at a cab stand (as if there were any), they are losing money.

Of course there is nothing to prevent the traditional cab companies from using the same electronic hailing techniques used by these newcomers, but why should they bother? It’s much easier to lobby the city government to put Uber and Lyft out of business.

Richard Hornby, Claremont

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