Part of Deansgate is to be closed to traffic - and other city centre streets will have footpaths widened - in response to the coronavirus lockdown, it has been confirmed.
Manchester's roads have been significantly quieter since the order to 'stay at home' came into affect last month.
Campaigners have called for some of them to be closed to motorists so that people have more space to exercise while observing social distancing rules.
Meanwhile, surveys show a majority of people do not want to return to 'normal' once lockdown is over, with many saying they believe the air is cleaner with fewer cars on the roads.
Council officials were already assessing a number of pedestrianisation options in the city centre, including Deansgate, and supporters suggested they should capitalise on the public mood by going further.
No date for the part-pedestrianisation has been given, but it is understood to be happening 'imminently'.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/part-deansgate-close-cars-city-18178175
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CANADA
A drop in riders during the COVID-19 pandemic has already parked dozens of cabs across Ottawa. Now, the city’s largest taxi company is suspending the insurance policy for its fleet, in a move that could force many cabs off the road.
“No, I can’t drive. My cab is parked. I don’t have insurance,” said Andre Houlahan, a taxi driver in Ottawa for over 40 years.
In a letter to drivers earlier this week, Coventry Connections said “as of May 31, 2020, Coventry has cancelled the taxi fleet insurance policy with Travelers Canada.”
Coventry Connections operates Blue Line, Capital and Westway Taxi.
The number of taxis operating on Ottawa’s roads has been reduced from 1,192 to 114 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drivers now fear that the number could shrink even more and become permanent.
“I was hurt,” Houlahan said. “Taxi industry brokers, these people that are millionaires today, everything that they made was on the back of drivers.”
The union representing Ottawa taxi drivers said there are only one or two companies in Canada that offer the complicated type of insurance required by taxis.
In a statement to CTV News Ottawa, Coventry Connections said the insurance cancellation is “due to non-payment of monthly insurance premiums.”
“I have no explanation to this, we were shocked by the letter,” Enad said.
Enad is calling on the City to provide an interim plan while they continue to advocate for looser regulations.
In a memo to Council, Emergency and Protective Services General Manager Anthony Di Monte says the decision to cancel the insurance policy for drivers “is a business decision taken by Coventry Connections.”
https://tinyurl.com/ycv2xh9p
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AMERICA
UberK and Lyft are planning massive layoffs as the coronavirus pandemic hit their ride-hailing business.
With shelter-at-home lockdown orders keeping Americans stuck inside, the demand for ride-hailing services has crashed over the last two months. And while delivery services have seen an uptick in performance since the country virtually shut down in March, the industry leaders in gig-economy driving apps are hitting a brick wall.
On Tuesday, The Information reported that Uber is mulling plans to let go up to 5,400 employees, or 20 percent of its workforce, after global ride bookings plummeted 80 percent in March as compared to March 2019. Although delivery services including Uber Eats, Uber Direct, and Uber Connect saw an uptick during the quarantine, they were far from enough to offset losses in the company’s core ride-hailing business.
According to an SEC filing on Tuesday, Uber’s longtime chief technology officer, Thuan Pham, has already submitted resignation (effective May 16) for reasons unrelated to COVID-19, a significant change that may put the company’s 3,800-person engineering team at risk of severe downsizing. The Information estimated that Uber could slash up to 3,000 engineering positions in the coming weeks.
Uber didn’t confirm any of the reported layoff numbers. A spokesperson said the company “is looking at every possible scenario to ensure we get to the other side of this crisis in a stronger position than ever.”
Still, corporate cutbacks barely reflect the true impact of the pandemic. Many Uber and Lyft drivers have run out of work for weeks. But since the millions of gig workers are not counted as full-time employees, they don’t qualify for unemployment benefits or even a mention in regulatory filings. Meanwhile, Uber investors are taking issues with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s $42.4 million pay package amid a company crisis, which is expected to be a key item to discuss at Uber’s upcoming shareholders meeting.
Coronavirus and the national quarantine has halted all transportation, not just on-demand taxi cabs. Uber’s and Lyft’s smaller transportation peers (and often targets of acquisition) are scrambling to deal with plummeting road traffic as well. Electric scooter startup Bird, for example, slashed 30 percent of its workforce in late March as the pandemic pushed scooters out of major cities. Its scooter-sharing rival, Lime, is planning to lay off over 100 employees, adding to a 14 percent downsize just two months ago.
On Thursday, fresh data from the Labor Department showed that another 3.8 million Americans had lost jobs in the past week, pushing the total headcount of coronavirus-induced unemployment past 30 million over the six weeks of national quarantine.
https://observer.com/2020/04/uber-lyft-coronavirus-layoff-ride-sharing-plummet/
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Lincolnshire County Council is looking for taxi firms to help transport key workers with suspected coronavirus to the Lincolnshire Showground for testing.
The authority is considering how to help people who may have difficulty getting to the site - and says taxi companies may be the solution.
Anita Ruffle, head of transport services at the council, said: “We have begun looking into the possibility of providing transport to the temporary test site at Lincolnshire Showground for those who would otherwise be unable to get there.
“Alongside home testing and mobile testing, this is just another option we are assessing to make sure keyworkers who needs tests can access them.”
Vladimir Kubjatko, who owns A2B Cars, is thinking of offering his services to the council but said he needs more information on how it would work first.
The showground testing site opened over the weekend with the aim of conducting 1,000 tests a day by Friday.
Tony McGinty, assistant director of public health at Lincolnshire County Council, said capacity across the county was still being ramped up – helped by the military operation of mobile units going between Boston, Skegness and Grantham.
He said that even if lockdown ended, without a vaccine “we will be testing a lot of people for some time to come yet”.
He said the county could still avoid a second surge of cases as long as people did not get “demob happy” as the lockdown continued.
Deputy Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police Jason Harwin said that 429 testing slots had been booked at the showground on Wednesday, April 29.
Mr Harwin, who leads Lincolnshire Resilience Forum, told Lincolnshire Live: "Across the county we were doing 60 to 70 tests a day so this is a big increase.
"The eligibility is key workers, care home staff and residents, people aged over 65 and workers who have to be out and about in their jobs."
https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/search-taxi-firms-take-keyworkers-4089920
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