January 6, 2006
Cab Fares on the Rise
After a long night out, sometimes the biggest relief is a quick cab ride home -- no waiting 17 minutes for the Green Line train, no running after a bunch of 30's buses as they pull away from your stop. That relief is soon to be a little more expensive.
According to News Channel 8, the D.C. Taxicab Commission has endorsed a series of cost increases that could make that one zone trip 18 percent more expensive or that four zone trip 10 percent more expensive. All told, the average fare increase will be around 12 percent. If you know the zone system well enough to maximize your cab ride without crossing the dreaded zone lines, your base fare will increase from the current $5.50 to $6.50. All increases are set to go into effect on Monday, January 9 at 12:01 a.m.
Not to pester, D.C. Taxicab Commission, but WHY NOT USE METERS?
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Three things:
(1) They seem to be getting rid of the stupid 1.50 surcharge, which is good.
(2) Is there any sort of organized cab-riders coalition--a group to consistently rattle the cages of these taxi commissioners?
(3) Why would this need to be "emergency rulemaking"? That's the phrase they use on the site.
I am totally for metered cabs. I sometimes feel that when I get into a cab like the driver is trying to figure out if he can pull one over on me and charge more. My routine now is to tell him the route I want to go so he knows he can't do that.
Please. Metered cabs make too much sense. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. This is DC we're talking about :)
We caught up with the rest of the world with the smoking ban, maybe we can advance to meters also.
Please?
Don't forget why there is no meter system...Congressmen like being able to take a ten-minute cab ride across Zone 1 for so little...most cabbies you talk to would prefer the meters, they always end up getting stiffed because a 5-minute, 4-zone trip costs so damn much.
Damn, I thought cabs here couldn't get more expensive??
I just came back from NYC where a cab trip from Manhattan to Crown Heights, Brooklyn was only about $15. That's almost as much for me to go from my house to Adams Morgan. Sad.
So, with the expiration of the $1.50 fuel surcharge, and the implementation of a $1.00 fare hike, I am now paying $.50 less per one-zone trip---and I'm supposed to be up in arms about what now?
I'm all for meters---but for transparency sake and so people aren't unwittingly screwed. However, I'm not fooling myself for one bit into thinking that anything but the rare* three-zone clusterfuck of a cab ride is going to cost one penny less.
*you can debate rare, but those "unfair" one zone jumps seem to be dominated by jumps straight into a traffic jam (i.e. M into georgetown, 18th into Adams Morgan, etc.), so you're going to now start whining about seeing the meter rise as the cab is essentially parked in traffic. Personally, I would enjoy the meter-increased fare that was the 2 zone trip from Dupont to the NE side of Capitol Hill---it is impossible to get a cab to take you there now, b/c they lose out on money doing it (and, sure, the law requires them to pick you up, but, come on, let's be realistic here).
In the meantime, you know what would ne nice? If somebody took Google Maps (double tru!) and mapped over the taxi cab zones map.
You could then put in two addresses and know what the fare should be...and be tipped off to to any zig and/or zags to maximize zones by the driver. Like G.I. Joe said, "knowing is half the battle."
I love this site:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
Surely there's someone out there that can make this happen. Talk about street cred!
There is an ongoing effort to bring to light all the D.C. taxicab issues and concerns now faced by D.C. citizens. A new blog (http://dctaxicabs.blogspot.com/) has been created to provide a forum for those who have problems with the D.C. Taxicab system.
I was actually thinking of metered cabs last night as one of the cabs from the meter pilot program blew by me. I am very excited for a fair metered system; but unlike the rest of DC am probably a little more patient...because I'd been convinced that if and when metered cabs went into citywide use, they would come with a fare increase. Even a cynic like me didn't predict more Zone-Fare-Hikes before the Meter Hike could even happen.
Weren't they piloting meters? I thought they had like 20 some cabs with meters out there, and we'd all eventually move towards a better-functioning market...
...on a related note, why are cabs overwhelmingly Crown Vics? I know the pure economics of a hybrid don't make sense for most people who drive, you know, 10k / year, but you'd think a car that drives continuously, all day, in stop-and-go city traffic, would be really playing to their strengths.
I find it hard to believe that we keep the zone system because Congressmen want to save $3. After all, this is local DC legislation, not congressional legislation. It's much more likely that the taxi commissioners are in the pocket of the cab companies, or because they produce more tax revenue with the zone system, or something along those lines. Either way, I'd like to see it become an '06 mayoral issue. Enough with the zone system. Is there a single DC citizen who supports it?
I have only lived here for two months. Every single time I have taken a cab (maybe 5 times?) the driver tried to charge me more than the actual fare according to the zone map (which is hard to read in the dark on a slant.) I might be too quick to assume that this is really a rampant problem, but meters would certainly eliminate scamming.
WOV - the "metered" cabs just display how many zones you're going through and the surcharges (fuel surcharge, extra passenger, etc.) I don't know if they're hooked up to some sort of GPS thing to calculate the zones or if the driver just pushes a button when you cross a zone to increase the fare, I suspect the latter. Probably really good for interstate trips, provided the meter can calculate the per-mile fare, but within the city it's only marginally better than the driver announcing your fare.
I was lucky enough to land an experimental meter cab and, from Georgetown to Van Ness, the meter was actually higher than the zone fair. This cab also had the GPS zone thingy that showed what zone you were in, how many you had crossed, etc. You would think that all cabbies would invest in one just so that wouldnt have to deal with people arguing or whining about fares. Besides, for all the things we are overcharged for in this city, (coffee, rent, etc.) I tend to be more sympathetic to cab drivers (for a myriad of reasons).
Driving a cab for a living is a tough job, and it's probably as bad (long hours, pain-in-the-neck customers) in DC as most other big cities. Fortunately for DC cabbies, DC's byzantine fare system nets them gigantic fares, and provides ample opportunities for them to stick it to customers.
To those who think the 2- and 3-zone fares are so uncommon, or usually involve particularly jam-prone traffic areas. How about this fairly typical ride?
Union Station to NE Capitol Hill (say, F and 13th). It's only about a mile walking, but let's say you and a friend just got off a train, have some luggage, and don't want to hoof it. In NYC, this would be $5.70 (plus a buck extra at rush hour). In DC, it would be $5.50 if it were you, by yourself, with no luggage, and the taxi commission hadn't instituted an "emergency" gas charge equivalent to more than a half gallon of gas for every trip. In reality, it's 2 zones ($7.60), plus the gas surcharge ($1.50), plus $1.50 for an extra passenger, plus $0.50 each for your "extra" bags (plus an extra buck at rush hour). So that's $11.60 with an extra bag each (and assuming your driver doesn't peg you for a visitor and try to charge you an extra "Union Station fee" or somesuch). Oh, and you and your friend better be getting off at the same stop -- one of you can't get off a few blocks farther down the road, like at G at 15th -- or else you gets charged for two separate trips (but save the $1.50 extra passenger fee). So the combined total would be $19.20 (vs. a little over $6.00 in NYC).
Don't frequent NE Capitol Hill? How about K St. and 13th to 18th and Kalorama in Adams Morgan? Or Dupont Circle to Georgetown? Each 2-zone fares. Or for the truly ridiculous, how about 3 visitors staying at the Omni Shoreham and heading off to dinner in Adams Morgan? One mile, 2 zones, 3 people, 5 minutes (tops): DC's non-rush-hour fare without extra luggage? $12.10 (vs. less than $5 in NYC).
This is insane. If fares like this are relatively rare, or less frequent than the travel patterns of Washingtonians and visitors would suggest, it's because the fares are obscene, thus discouraging people from taking cabs when it makes sense to do so. Maybe for some people it encourages taking the Metro, or walking, but for many people it just encourages driving, which ends up sucking for everyone.
I just walk everywhere, unless it's freezing. This is a small town! I tried taking the bus once, but while I was waiting, I read the Post's recent sucky Metrobus article and just decided I would be better off taking the green line to Gallery Place, and then the red line to Metro Center, even though I was only heading to DuPont Circle.
I think I'll just take a cab if I'm too tired or have had a bunch to drink. Isn't there some phone number you can call to get a free cab ride if you're drunk, or was that just for New Year's?
I also don't mind a fare increase as long as they get rid of that stupid "temporary" gas surcharge.
I'm leaning towards meters as well, but my one concern... will that jack up the costs for the cab drivers? Or more selfishly -- will there be fewer cabs, thus making it much more of a pain in the ass to find them?
The DC cab system is awful. First, the fare system makes short trips in various parts of the city way too expensive. Second, the rider doesn't know what's going on cuz there's no meter to watch (even most cabs in Buenos Aires have meters). Third, and not incredibly important, is that the cabs are all sorts of colors (this is a problem in many places, but all cabs should be a designated color). Fourth, like in other US cities, the cabs should be more fuel efficient. Cabs are not cops.
Ok DC Taxi Cab Commission, we'll pay the fare increases. But, in exchange, you must require every cab driver to HANG UP THEIR CELL PHONE!! For this price, we deserve some peace and quiet!!
Another suggestion bordering on heresy would be that DC taxis be required to have medallions, or ther the number of cabs be limited in some other way. That would get the drivers who had the medallions much higher revenues, because there would be fewer cabs, and those cabs would thus be more consistently filled. That would also, however, knock some drivers out of business (or, more likely, it would keep new drivers out of the market, as current drivers would be grandfathered in). It probably would also make it harder to get a cab, because there would be fewer of them--for all my hate of DC cabs, no one can argue that there aren't enough cabbies in the downtown core.
Also, what's up with them never coming when you call for service? I hate that.