Taxi Reform for Seniors

August 1, 2019
by Valerie Hsu

Taxi service in Montgomery County for seniors and persons with disabilities was inefficient and at times, unbearable. Seniors and disabled persons who no longer had the ability to drive, or did not have access to a car, had to wait upwards of 2 or 3 hours to get a ride back from the grocery store, metro or anywhere from taxis.

When AIM leaders, clergy and congregation members pushed County Executive Doug Duncan to research the taxi companies in Montgomery County, it was found that Barwood Taxi Service held an unofficial monopoly over all the rest. AIM members organized to pass the first major taxi reform of the industry in fifteen years, which put out more taxis on the road and created sanctions and rewards for proper and improper actions.