(a) Solicitation of passengers by driver. No driver shall solicit passengers for a taxicab except when sitting in the driver's compartment of such taxicab or while standing immediately adjacent to the curb side of the taxicab. The driver of any taxicab shall remain in the driver's compartment or immediately adjacent to his vehicle at all times when such vehicle is upon the public street; except when necessary a driver may be absent from his taxicab for not more than five consecutive minutes; and nothing contained in this subsection shall be held to prohibit any driver from alighting to the street or sidewalk for the purpose of assisting passengers into or out of such vehicle.
(b) Prohibited solicitation. No driver shall solicit patronage in a loud or annoying tone of voice or by sign or in any manner annoy any person or obstruct the movement of any persons, 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 left-hand sidewalk, or side of the roadway in the absence of a sidewalk.
(d) Cruising. No driver shall cruise in search of passengers except in such areas and at such times as shall be designated by the police chief. Such areas and times shall only be designated when the police chief finds that taxicab cruising would not congest traffic or be dangerous to pedestrians and other vehicles.
(e) Solicitation of other common carrier passengers prohibited. No driver, owner or operator shall solicit passengers at the terminal of any other common carrier, nor at any intermediate points along any established route of any other common carrier.
(f) Additional passengers. No driver shall permit any other person to occupy or ride in the taxicab unless the person first employing the taxicab shall consent to the acceptance of additional passengers. No charge shall be made for an additional passenger except when the additional passenger rides beyond the previous passenger's destination, and then only for the additional distance so traveled.
(g) 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 taxicab as stated in the license for the vehicle issued by the police department. A child in arms shall not be counted as a passenger.
(h) Refusal to carry orderly passengers prohibited. No driver shall refuse or neglect to convey any orderly person, upon request, unless previously engaged or unable or forbidden by the provisions of this article to do so.
(i) Prohibitions of drivers. It shall be a violation of this article for any driver of a taxicab to solicit business for any hotel, or to attempt to divert patronage from one hotel to another. Neither shall such driver engage in selling intoxicating liquors or solicit business for any house of ill repute or use his vehicle for any purpose other than the transporting of passengers.
(j) Prohibition of passengers. It shall be unlawful for the driver of any taxicab to permit any person to stand on the running board of such vehicle while the vehicle is in motion, and it shall be unlawful for any person to ride on the running board of such vehicle when it is in motion.
(Ord. No. 100, § 25, 10-3-1977)