Changes could be coming to transportation in Oak Bluffs. 

The town’s select board this week continued discussions over potential changes to the town’s taxicab regulations after complaints from cabbies earlier this year.

The select board began to review taxi regulations when Jacqueline McGillicuddy, the owner of MV Harbor Taxi, asked the board to support local taxi services against out-of-town companies that operate in Oak Bluffs at the April 23 meeting. 

“The other towns that come in that don’t have a license to operate in Oak Bluffs, they just take any parking space they want and take over,” Ms. McGillicuddy said. “It’s our income. This is when we make our money for the season and that has to carry us over through the winter. We’re here 12 months out of the year and we need help.”

Select board chair Gail Barmakian worked with Oak Bluffs police Sgt. Christopher Wiggin to develop the changes that were discussed during both select board meetings this month.

The first round of proposed changes were discussed at the July 9 select board meeting. The changes included setting definitions for downtown and out-of-town taxicabs and two new regulations. One proposal would prevent a taxicab operator from leaving a cab parked and unattended downtown for more than 15 minutes. The second stated that operators are not allowed to stage their vehicles on public property or in public parking spaces downtown unless directed to do so by an officer.

At both that meeting and this week’s, select board members discussed the definition of staging and debated whether more details were needed. Several taxicab operators attended the meeting to provide further input.

The board also went over recommendations made by member Mark Leonard.

Two of his suggestions addressed out-of-town taxis directly. He proposed preventing out-of-town cabs from soliciting fares anywhere in Oak Bluffs at the risk of a $100 fine per offense. Mr. Leonard also suggested that out-of-town taxis wait for pre-arranged fares in designated loading zones for 10 minutes or less.

“It requires further analysis to say this is where we want them because we don’t want out-of-town taxis staging at the prime spaces,” he said.

Business owners cautioned that only allowing cabs to collect guests in specific areas may hurt the local cab companies because guests may use Uber or Lyft to be picked up directly.

Mr. Leonard also suggested preventing all taxicabs from parking in public spaces or on public ways overnight anywhere in Oak Bluffs and that cabs collecting a prearranged party should have a sign on the dashboard that denotes the surname of the customer and the number of passengers in the party.

“It makes enforcement easier because then you can see who and where they are,” he said.

Mr. Leonard also suggested cutting redundant language and loosening the driver uniform requirement.

The Oak Bluffs select board plans to continue the discussion at a future meeting.