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5500 Taxis better for the environment than 100,000 Uber and Lyft, Khamseh to tell November 6 rally

Members of Torontoโ€™s Taxi industry will be part of the Global Day for Climate Justice taking place at Queenโ€™s Park on Saturday, November 6th, 2021.

โ€œEveryone wants our environment to be cleaner, with less emissions from automobiles,โ€ says Behrouz Khamseh. โ€œTaxis are very much a part of that solution; up until 2016, there were only 5500 licensed Taxis driving in Toronto. When Uber arrived, Toronto allowed almost 100,000 additional vehicles for hire. The decision to allow this destroyed any progress Toronto might have hoped to make in reducing traffic, congestion, emissions, and pollution.โ€

Khamseh will attend the event representing ATOOL (All Taxi Owners and Operators Ltd.) and says the group has decided not to send a large number of Taxis to the rally, in keeping with the idea that fewer vehicles mean less emissions. He hopes it will make a more powerful statement if he brings just one Taxi.

The groupโ€™s banner reflect the two messages they hope consumers and politicians in Toronto will keep in mind: โ€œTaxis are better for the environment,โ€ and โ€œIf you want clean air, say โ€˜noโ€™ to Uber and Lyft.โ€

The November 6 Global Day for Climate Justice is in response to COP26.ย  The COVID-safe rally will take place on Saturday, November 6, at 1 pm at Queenโ€™s Park (south lawn).

The event has a Facebook event pageย and can be emailed at ย info@nov6toronto.org.