CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Cora MacDonald has been a driving force in people’s lives for almost 30 years.
And now the Charlottetown cab driver is ready to navigate an entirely new road.
MacDonald has started her own business, becoming the city’s first female-owned cab company. She will be the only driver for now, but she thinks it would be a great idea someday to have all female drivers.
“I wanted to do my own thing, basically, and be my own boss,’’ MacDonald said. “I feel there’s a need for women taxi drivers and I figured if I owned the company I could set the rules.’’
For the record, MacDonald is one of a handful of women driving taxis in Charlottetown.
She started driving a taxi almost 30 years ago for the now-defunct company, Star Taxi.
“I do enjoy it. I like meeting the people and talking. I like to talk,’’ she laughs.
“The girls that I pick up on Saturday night were really thrilled with the fact that there would be a woman taxi driver and one that owned her own company.’’
-Cora MacDonald
While she’ll take anyone anywhere, MacDonald said the big business is traffic to and from the hotels and the Charlottetown Airport in the spring, summer and fall seasons when the city is busy hosting conferences.
MacDonald said she can’t count how many times someone has opened her cab door and was pleasantly surprised to see a woman behind the wheel.
“They’ll say, ‘Oh, look, it’s a woman driver, it’s so great to see a woman’. I’d ask them why, of course, and they’d tell me they feel more comfortable. Some say they feel safer.’’
MacDonald said one woman recently told her that she is uncomfortable with calling a taxi and then before she is dropped off at home, the taxi picks up other passengers.
“She was going home after the clubs and she didn’t want them knowing where she lived,’’ MacDonald said, recounting the conversation she had with one female passenger.
“She said she felt very uncomfortable.’’
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In fact, a couple of years ago an advisory board with the City of Charlottetown reported that many young women didn’t like taking cabs alone for safety reasons.
Jillian Kilfoil, executive director of Women’s Network of P.E.I., said it’s a story she hears all too often.
“It’s an issue we hear about across the age spectrum of women,’’ Kilfoil said. “Younger women, maybe downtown, maybe later at night don’t feel comfortable taking cabs.’’
Because of safety concerns, Kilfoil said many people, especially women, have found alternative means of transportation.
Kilfoil said MacDonald’s venture might help change that.
“Having this new business opportunity is actually going to bring people who are not cab users (back to cabs). (Women) will now be more likely to use a cab because there is the for-women, by-women option.’’
MacDonald said she is certainly looking forward to providing that option.
“The girls that I pick up on Saturday night were really thrilled with the fact that there would be a woman taxi driver and one that owned her own company,’’ MacDonald said.
