LaMattina Supports Alternative to Cabs

District One Boston City Councilor Sal LaMattina let his feelings be fully known at a recent Council meeting related to establishing regulations that will let popular ridesharing services such as Uber X and Lyft stay on Boston roads under rules like those that govern taxis.

It appears that the Councilor has had too many bad experiences with cabbies not to support Uber X.

“I can’t tell you how many times I have had fights with taxi drivers because they refused to take me to East Boston,” LaMattina said. “It’s not once, it’s not twice, its many times.”

Uber X is a service under which drivers use their own vehicles and don’t have livery plates, a separate, legally sanctioned alternative to cabs. Some drivers reportedly have livery plates.

A unionzed cabbies spokesperson claimed these companies were “taking food away from their (cabbies) families.”

Thus far, the city hasn’t figured out a true level playing framework.