Advertising on Cabs, Coming Soon?

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Dec 1, 2005 8:17PM

Chicagoist is not sure why it's such a big deal to put ads on cabs since our buses and trains and even train station turnstyles already have them, but it's been a "forbidden" practice for a long time. Yesterday Mayor Daley introduced a proposal that would permit ads on the roofs and doors of Chicago taxicabs.

Daley says one of the concerns has been to make sure that the cab drivers get some of the advertising income. In his proposal, the cab owner would get 65% of the revenue, estimated at about $400/month/vehicle, with the driver who leases the car getting the remaining 35%.

Now, remember how cabbies wanted to get a surcharge in place to help out with rising gas prices? Officials say that advertising is not meant as a substitute for that surcharge, but since neither the mayor or any alderman has introduced an ordinance proposing such a surcharge, it seems that we're in the clear as far as that goes.

So, seems pretty straightforward, right? Except Daley's proposal also calls for more "green" cabs and more wheel-chair accessibility. Both are important things to have, but seem to be things that make the propsal more complicated to pass. Daley has proposed that owners of more than 50 cabs must have at least 1 alternative-fuel or hybrid-engine vehicle in their fleets. And the owners would have to have at least 1 wheelchair-accessible cab for every 25 taxis.

Seems like cab owners would be willing to put adverts on their cars bc it's quick money in the pocket, but outrigging a car to be wheel chair accessible or getting a hybrid car is money out of their pocket that they won't see quick returns on. Again, they still should have to do it, just seems like there'll be more resistence to the proposal by having the last 2 things in there. And also, why wouldn't the city try to cash in on some of the advertising $$? Like you can have the ads, but give us 10% of revenue?