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Huge Taxi Strike in Paris today

Take the RER to get to/from the airports . . .avoid any kind of vehicular way to/from the airports . . . the taxis are blocking the roads, so traffic is backed up for miles . . . .

Posted by
4392 posts

also ongoing today per news reports, drivers being surrounded egged and attacked.

Posted by
10188 posts

Since Uber is illegal in France, if you call Uber, you are participating in an illegal activity. Too bad about the eggs; they would have made a nice omlette. Taxi drivers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for their licenses, not thousands, but hundreds of thousands, as well as taking courses and exams. I think you'd be a bit pissed too.

Posted by
9565 posts

Uber overall is not illegal -- UberPop, the service by which any Jane Dick or Harry can use their private car to pick up strangers for some extra bucks, is illegal. But the regular Uber service is legal.

Also, it's one thing to be pissed, it's another altogether to be destroying others' property, scaring people out of vehicles, beating people up (as they did to an UberPop passenger in Lyon earlier this week) or threatening perfectly unassociated people -- as I experienced personally at Orly yesterday -- INSIDE the terminal, nowhere NEAR anywhere looking for a vehicle!!!! I think the taxi drivers have gone a bit far this time - the disgust they're creating out there among regular citizens is very real.

Posted by
350 posts

Bets, the "you'd be pissed too" comment is so completely missing the point. Hotels are not happy about Airbnb taking over a huge portion of the visitor's lodging market, but they're not destroying vehicles and menacing tourists.

We were in Paris last week and saw no violence, but saw and heard the taxi protests near Hotel de Ville on Friday evening. We did hear of a family who had to beg with a police officer to help them convince the protestors to allow a cab to take them to the airport - the police officer talked to the protesting cab drivers who finally relented to let this family get to their plane home.