Bus Strike, Final Four Creating Cab Shortage

It probably won’t reach the point of kindergartners battling basketball fans for the Last Cab in Seattle, but the stress on the city’s taxi fleet will likely reach a crescendo in the coming week.

Waiting time for some taxis has doubled since March 7, when schoolbus drivers serving thousands of Seattle children went on strike. Fifty additional cabs were earmarked to transport school children with disabilities to and from class each day.

And next weekend the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament will be at the Kingdome - along with about 35,000 visitors.

Waiting times for cabs are “going to be worse, I think you can count on that, ” said Jeff Fairman, operations manager for Yellow Cab Co., Seattle’s largest cab company.

North Seattle is typically Yellow Cab’s busiest area in the afternoon. On Friday, “the generic customer was sitting (and waiting) probably about 20 minutes,” Fairman said. “Normally, it’s about 10.”

Children won’t be in school on Saturday, when the Final Four games start. But 17,000 hotel-room bookings have been made for the basketball showdown, with fans beginning to arrive during the week.

That may begin the big crunch, when visitors try to take cabs to restaurants, parties and other places.

To help ease the squeeze, Metro will provide free shuttle-bus service every 15 minutes downtown between the Kingdome and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, Friday through Monday, April 3.