(A) Taxicab solicitation of passengers by driver. No driver shall solicit passengers for a taxicab except when he or she is sitting in the driver’s compartment of the taxicab or standing immediately adjacent to the curb side thereof. The driver of any taxicab shall remain in the driver’s compartment or immediately adjacent to his or her vehicle at all times when the vehicle is upon the public streets, except that when necessary a driver may be absent from his or her taxicab for not more than five consecutive minutes, and that nothing herein contained shall be held to prohibit any driver from alighting to the street or sidewalk for the purpose of assisting passengers into or out of the vehicle, or for assisting them with their luggage.
(B) Prohibited taxicab solicitation. No driver shall solicit patronage in a loud or annoying tone of voice, or by sign or in any manner annoy any person, obstruct the movement of any person, or follow any person for the purpose of soliciting patronage.
(C) Receipt and discharge of passengers on sidewalk only. Drivers of taxicabs shall not receive or discharge passengers in the roadway, but shall pull up to the right- hand sidewalk as nearly as possible or, in the absence of a sidewalk, to the extreme right-hand side of the road, and there receive or discharge passengers, except upon one-way streets where passengers may be discharged at either the right- or the left-hand sidewalk, or side of the roadway in the absence of a sidewalk.
(D) Taxicab cruising. No taxicab driver shall cruise in search of passengers except in such areas and at such times as shall be designated by the Taxicab License Board. Such areas and times shall only be designated when the Board finds that taxicab cruising would not congest traffic or be dangerous to pedestrians and other vehicles.
(E) Additional taxicab passengers. A taxicab driver shall be permitted to carry additional passengers, employing the shared ride concept, regardless of pickup or termination points of the passengers.
(F) Taxicab restriction on number of passengers. No driver shall permit more persons to be carried in a taxicab as passengers than the rated seating capacity of his or her taxicab as stated in the license for the vehicle, as issued by the Taxicab License Board.
(G) Refusal to carry orderly taxicab passengers prohibited. No taxicab driver shall refuse or neglect to convey an orderly person or persons upon request, unless previously engaged or unable or forbidden by the provisions of this chapter to do so.
(H) Soliciting taxicab business or transporting liquor. It shall be a violation of this chapter for any driver of a taxicab to solicit business for any hotel or motel, or to attempt to divert patronage from one hotel or motel to another. Neither shall the taxicab driver engage in selling or transporting intoxicating liquors or solicit business for any house of ill repute, or use his or her vehicle for any purpose other than that of transporting passengers.
(1980 Code, § 114.21) (Ord. 5034, passed 5-15-1989; Am. Ord. 7654, passed 3-19-2007) Penalty, see § 114.99