Across Europe, Anti-Uber Protests Clog City Streets
In capital cities across Europe, taxi drivers took to the streets without passengers Wednesday afternoon. They slowed to a snail's pace in what Parisians called "Operation Escargot." Horns blared around Trafalgar Square in London. In Berlin, taxis massed at the Central Station. All to protest the smartphone app Uber.
"We've opened Frankfurt last week, we've opened Lille in France, which is our third city this week. We opened Barcelona a couple weeks ago, and there's many more cities to go," Uber's Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty says.
Gore-Coty is Uber's general manager for Western and Northern Europe. He estimates that the company's European fleet is doubling in size every six months, with a presence in 20 European cities already.
"Finally seeing some sort of competition coming to the market is something that is new," he says. "And even on the protest today, what I'm seeing is taxis are trying to bring cities to a standstill, while Uber is focused on helping as many people as possible move around cities.
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