How’s business going for that new emission-free all-electric text-us-and-we’ll-pick-you-up sorta-free Downtown shuttle service?
A little more than a year into it, REV Houston’s 3 Chrysler GEM vehicles are proving quite popular with . . . city investigators!
City officers have ticketed Rev Houston drivers at least 15 times this year, and plenty more last year. The citations, which average $150 to $200, are for offenses such as “no taxicab permit” and “no taxicab driver’s license.”
“One of the offenses is ‘no fire extinguisher,’ ” Ibarra said. “Our vehicles don’t have a single drop of combustible liquid, but the city feels we need to have a fire extinguisher. ‘No taxi meter’ is another one. We don’t charge a fare, so why should we have a taxi meter?”
Tina Paez, the city’s deputy director of administration and regulatory affairs, said Ibarra’s vehicles have been cited as taxis because they take passengers.
“If they charge a fare or accept a gratuity, they are a vehicle for hire,” she said. “Even though they don’t technically charge, they come under the ordinance.”
- His ‘green’ venture is costing a bit of green [Houston Chronicle, via Off the Kuff]
- REV Houston
- Previously on Swamplot: REV Houston: Street Illegal, Tips Only: Downtown-to-Midtown Zero-Emission Shuttle
Comment of the Day: The Midtown CVS Domino Effect
“. . . CVS didn’t follow Post Midtown’s urban scale approach even though its lot was right across the street and the collective wisdom at the time was that Gray and Bagby would be built out with mid-rise, mixed-use developments right up to Main and the new rail line. It seemed so obvious and for those who longed for true urban living in this town, it was a dream coming true. CVS didn’t play ball simply because they didn’t have to. No code required them to build in any way, shape, or form that might have benefited the collective vision of Midtown. So be it, that’s Houston. However, after CVS bucked the urban trend, so did most every developer after them. So instead of all or most of Midtown being walkable, populated with street life like just the 3 blocks developed by Post ultimately became; Midtown’s blocks are populated with suburban style apartments complexes with no street life whatsoever, just block after block of gates and fences. If Houston had had the guts to enact urban design strategies then, Midtown would be the success that similar areas have become in Dallas, Atlanta and other cities. Houston punked out and we are all the losers for decades to come. Ironically the very same developers who fought urban guidelines in Midtown were building successful urban properties in all those other cities at the same time. . . .” [John, commenting on Cul de Sac City: Houston’s Ban on New Street Grids]