Kent Lanes can’t spare parking for cabbies
By Aloma Jardine
Every Sunday night Richard Stevenson gets out a step ladder to look out the window of his bowling centre on Catherine Street.
Kent Bowling Lanes is on the second floor. Stevenson uses the ladder to look out the high window rather than run down the stairs.
He needs to keep an eye on the parking lot to make sure taxis waiting for fares at the bus station across the street don’t park in his lot.
“This is not just a new problem, it’s been going on for as long as I can remember. Years,” Stevenson said. Eighty to 90 people bowl in a Sunday night league, and it’s difficult for customers to use the parking lot when taxis are parked in it.
Stevenson says when customers see the taxis they think the bowling centre’s closed.
The taxi stand at Voyageur Colonial Inc. holds 10 cars. Roughly 10 more can park along the street, but the rest have to park somewhere else.
“On Sunday night the regular drivers aren’t too bad,” Stevenson says. “They know not to come on. It’s when you get new drivers that the problems start.”
Stevenson usually has to go to the parking lot several times each Sunday to remind taxi drivers not to park there.
“They’ve got to make their money and I can understand that, but we have to make our money too,” he said.
Long weekends and holidays are worse because it’s busier at the bus station.
“There are taxis everywhere, in the lot, blocking the entrance,” Stevenson said.
This year, on Thanksgiving Monday, Stevenson counted 60 cabs in the area at one time. He and another employee spent the evening in the parking lot chasing away cabs.
Stevenson’s business is the only one in the area open Sunday evenings, but he isn’t the only business owner critical of the taxi drivers.
Marvin Grant, owner of Canada Supply and Tire, also across the street from Voyageur, is more harsh than Stevenson.
“I find it a problem too, a big problem,” he said. “They throw their garbage on the ground, their cars drip oil all over my lot, and when I come in here Monday morning, it’s just a mess.
“I don’t want them anywhere near my lot.”
Grant says he blocks his lot with a truck in the summer. In the winter he can’t, because the snowplow goes by.
He says he’s called the police and Blue Line Taxi Co. Ltd. to report the problem, but nothing’s been done.
“I chase them away and they’re back in ten minutes,” he said. “I’ve called Blue Line, but they can’t seem to do anything about it.”
Ali Hussein, a taxi driver with Blue Line, said Sunday nights are slow and drivers go where the fares are.
“Some drivers go where they’re not supposed to,” he said. “Only a handful do it and it makes us all look bad.”
Another driver with Blue Line, Tony Miller, said drivers park in the lot during the rush period on Sunday, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. “A lot of people are travelling, there’s a need for cars,” Miller said. “He (Stevenson) wants to create a problem.”
Wayne French, vice-president and general manager of Blue Line, said they’ve told drivers not to park in the lot. He said they’ll be warned again.
French understands Stevenson’s concern, but defends the taxi drivers.
“The cab drivers are trying to earn a living too,” he said. “It’s very congested down there. We can only put so many cars at the stand and on the street.”
Phil Valois, director of human resources at Voyageur, said he wasn’t aware there’s a problem with traffic across the street.
He said space is extremely limited at the station, and it would be difficult to increase the size of the taxi stand.
Stevenson remains philosophical about the situation.
“I start checking at around 6 p.m.,” he says. “You get used to when the buses come in. Even though it’s a pain to go out there, the customers see you out there and appreciate it. You do what you have to do to make your customers happy.”