Cab drivers rally against rideshares, stall AM commute

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago cab drivers protested ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft by not picking up passengers during Tuesday's morning commute. They held a rally outside Chicago City Hall in the Loop.

Cabs with horns blaring, four way flashers and signs affixed to their windows were lined up near the corner of Randolph and Clark. Taxi drivers say Uber is unsafe for passengers and the rideshare service is unfair to conventionally-licensed drivers.

"We all gonna get bankrupt, no matter what. It's sooner rather than later. We gonna get bankrupt. Why you gonna destroy legitimate business for illegal business, you know?" taxi driver Talibe Fofana said.

"It's not right for everyone to pay all the taxes, all the fees, all those things together and they have to do nothing," Mike Simon, black car driver, said.

While taxi and black car drivers protested the growing popularity of lesser-regulated ridesharing services, Uber appears to have profited from the shortage of taxis taking passengers in the Loop. Demond James is a doorman for the Allegro Chicago Hotel.

"Because of the protest, I could not get a taxi. I called a taxi company; I was on hold for quite a while. I went online and still, to no avail, I wasn't able to get a taxi. What they wound up doing is: they wound up calling Uber," James said.