Taxi coupons are important city service

Life in Cape Girardeau is better if you have a car.

Unlike big cities where owning a car can be more of a headache than a help, Cape Girardeau's lifestyle of shopping, recreation, medical care and even church attendance lends itself to motorized transportation.

There aren't sidewalks in every neighborhood. And it's a long, long way on foot from the shops downtown to the big Westfield Shoppingtown or the multitude of retail stores on Siemers Drive west of Interstate 55.

The bulk of the city's medical services, including Doctors Park and St. Francis Medical Center, are on the west side of town. Only Southeast Missouri Hospital and very few medical offices are in the middle of residential neighborhoods.

And woe to the Southeast Missouri State University student who doesn't have a vehicle but must seek housing on the city's apartment-rich west side -- a few miles from classes.

Addressing the problem isn't as simple as saying we should have public transportation and then paying the unrealistic operational expenses for bus service. Cape Girardeau leaders found out long ago that they couldn't run bus routes in an efficient manner and have the system come even close to fiscally responsibility. Enter the city's taxi coupon system.

It was established in 1981 for the disabled and residents over 60 because there was no public transit system. Today, the taxi coupons are available to every city resident through an agreement with Kelley Transportation, Cape Girardeau's only taxi company. Hundreds of Cape Girardeans use the program.

The elderly and those with permanent disabilities pay $1 for a coupon that entitles them to a one-way taxi ride. The able-bodied pay $2. That price is reasonable by any standard. The program allows for 14 coupons a month for each resident.

Apparently, there has been some concern expressed about taxi drivers who run errands for taxi-coupon holders. Perhaps that's not what the program's creators had in mind, but who would deny, for example, an elderly resident a decent meal? Sure, he or she could get out into the heat, struggle into the taxi and pay one coupon for each way of the trip.

But isn't it a nice service that the cab drivers will simply take two coupons and money for the meal and deliver it?

There are rules against delivering alcohol and cigarettes, which are appropriate. But the delivery of food and prescriptions certainly seems in order.

We can be grateful for the taxi coupon program that can help people get where they need to go.