These cities want to challenge Uber & Lyft with their own cab-hailing apps

When companies like Uber and Lyft come in to a city and start providing rides to people on the fly with the push of a button in a mobile app, passengers aren’t the only ones who notice. Cabbies behind the wheel of city-licensed taxis feel the impact, too.

Startups Flywheel and Hailo have sprung up to bring Uber-like ride-hailing experiences to taxi fleets in several cities, but Hailo ultimately gave up in North America, leaving New Yorkers and Chicagoans hanging, among others.

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Flywheel and other startups might well do something about that. But elected officials and cab companies in a few major U.S. municipalities aren’t waiting around; they’re taking matters into their own hands. Here’s what they’re up to:

Chicago

City councillors in the Windy City earlier this month approved an ordinance that will kick off a procurement process to find one or more apps with which people can summon up cabs in Chicago.

All cabs in Chicago will be required to participate in the program, according to a statement from the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Los Angeles

Eric Garcetti, mayor of the City of Angels, in September directed the city’s Board of Taxicab Commissioners to review taxi regulations “and take all steps necessary to ensure equal competition among transportation platforms, including traditional taxis and Transportation Network Companies.” And an app for all official taxis in the city is under discussion.

At a meeting last week, taxi drivers and the city’s taxicab commissioners spoke about the idea of developing an app for requesting taxis in Los Angeles, despite that people can already do that with Flywheel. There is no official proposal of an app to be voted on yet.

“We want to make sure the taxicab industry here in the city is embracing technology, and if the use of an app can help meet that goal, it’s kind of a win-win for everyone,” a city transportation department spokesman told VentureBeat.

New York

In the Big Apple, earlier this month city councilman Benjamin Kallos came forth with legislation that would “create a free Universal E-Hail App to allow New Yorkers to e-hail any of the 13,637 yellow cabs and 6,000 green cabs that participate,” according to a statement from the elected official.

And not only that — Kallos’ legislation would also make it possible for existing alternative cab apps like Uber and Lyft to include official “yellow and green cabs” when passengers demand a ride, with a metered fare, according to the statement. That’d be an interesting way to keep business flowing to taxi drivers amid the mobile-enabled cab craze.

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Seattle

The largest fleet of taxis in the Emerald City, Seattle Yellow Cab, has come forth with Android and iOS apps with which passengers can order up taxis. It’s not possible to pay through the apps, though, according to a report yesterday from Geekwire.

But at least passengers won’t have to pay the $1 fee that’s associated with using Flywheel, which still operates in Seattle.

Meanwhile, taxi companies in the city other than Seattle Taxi Cab, such as Orange Cab, maintain their own apps.