Paris taxi drivers cause traffic jams in protest of Uber

We should do this in Tampa jBay to show we mean business and want the mayor to stop illegal operators

IF only the French could fight their wars as bravely as they fight against markets, eh?

The latest is that several Parisian taxi drivers have beaten up someone driving an Uber limo: this is even after the French Government just passed a, quite probably illegal, law to favour the taxis over the Uber drivers:

It seems that protest turned to guerrilla warfare this morning as one Uber driver, carrying Eventbrite CTO Renaud Visage & Kat Borlongan from the airport to Paris, was attacked by multiple assailants, who allegedly, after smashing one window and slashing two tires (as seen in the photo), as well as defacing one side of the car with glue, attempted to enter the vehicle. Borlongan says their Uber driver manoeuvered the two out of the situation before anything could happen, leaving the three stranded on the shoulder of the freeway.

Here’s the background: just as in London, in Paris the taxi drivers are the only people who are allowed to pick up a ride anywhere. However, this company, Uber, has a system where you try to book your limo ride on your smartphone. This is increasingly popular as people would obviously prefer to book a cab while they’re finishing their coffee rather than stand out in the rain looking for one.

This also, naturally, pisses off the cab drivers. So, the French Government has just passed a law stating that an Uber driver cannot turn up less than 15 minutes after he has been booked. This is to make sure that people who really have to go, right now, will still use cabs.

If there’s one around of course.

But even after this the Uber driver got attacked this morning. And he did have two passengers in there at the time as well. It’s all going to be rather interesting as these new services roll out, isn’t it?

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