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Ten hours in to the 24-hour D.C. taxi strike, it's looking like a large percentage of drivers in fact stayed home. As people make their way out of offices to head home and tend to children anxious to begin trick or treating, what will they find? Based on streets we've seen around town virtually devoid of D.C. cabs, we'd say that if you have your own car, your drive will most likely be a lot easier than normal. If you were hoping to find a cab, you're going to have a bad night.
Other media outlets are reporting similar scenes. The Examiner has photos of sad out-of-towners at Union Station, waiting in long lines in the hopes of snagging a taxi. They also point out that getting to Georgetown for the neighborhood's traditional Halloween festivities without readily available cabs tonight could be especially bad. Thankfully, DCist readers are aware that Georgetown sucks, and don't have to worry.
The Post quotes a spokesperson for the Taxicab Industry Group, who pronounced the strike "very successful," though he had no estimate of how many of the city's 7,500 drivers were participating. "There are very few out there. They're not in the street," he said.
The Associated Press notes that at many downtown hotels doormen said they were steering more of their business to limousine companies to fill demand for cars. Fancy.
Let us know what else you notice out there, and if your plans for the evening have changed at all now that you know the strike is real.
Photo by terecico
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I noticed a lot more MD and VA taxi cabs on the streets around Farragut Square than normal. I did not witness any of them actually picking customers up, but I wonder if they would be busted even if they did seeing how that practice is illegal (from what I have heard).
"Thankfully, DCist readers are aware that Georgetown sucks, and don't have to worry."
DCist readers are the coolest, hippest motherfuckers on the planet!!1!!
"Thankfully, DCist readers are aware that Georgetown sucks, and don't have to worry."
++
By admitting that DCist readers are the hippest, you have ceased to be hip. I will be switching my reading allegiance to the next blog that celebrates everything north of U St. and east of 18th St. Clearly yuppie-gentrifiers are now in control....
Seemed like I saw more and more cabs as the day progressed, though zero at any downtown hotels. But then again, I think some of the cabs I did see this afternoon were VA and MD based.
Well Georgetown certainly can't compete with the DCist-preferred neighborhoods for back alley gay crack whores.
I definitely won't be headed to H street, like I planned. Too hard to get a cab back to columbia heights.
In related news, the District's muggers are going on strike next Tuesday to protest mugging being illegal.
Will Fenty cave???
"Thankfully, DCist readers are aware that Georgetown sucks, and don't have to worry."
Perhaps - but can we be sure that no southern-fried frat boys, lame tourists, or high school kids read DCist...?
Well, not sure what this proves for the cabs. I mean the meters are still going to be used so ... what was the goal?
Seriously who is going to side with this industry that fails to see that being regulated is a good thing? I mean Adam Smith even thought that regulation was good.
"I noticed a lot more MD and VA taxi cabs on the streets around Farragut Square than normal. I did not witness any of them actually picking customers up, but I wonder if they would be busted even if they did seeing how that practice is illegal (from what I have heard)."
The law doesn't necessarily stop out-of-district cabs from trying to pick up fares here, but I would never recommend riding in one. The two times I unwittingly hopped in a Maryland cab in DC, I ended up with drivers who didn't know the grid system, tried to turn the wrong way on a one-way street (twice!), and tried to overcharge for a one-zone trip. Cabs from other jurisdictions are a menace.
I think MD and VA cabs are allowed to pick people up as long as those people are going back to MD/VA.
Also, yeah, I agree that I have no freakin' clue why they are protesting or what this accomplishes.
I find myself wondering what these douchebag cab drivers think they will accomplish with this strike. Not only do they not have logic on their side -- meters make sense, zones do not -- but it seems that there is little public support for their cause.
I've been frustrated with mediocre cab service, fussing over zone boundaries, and rejection based on destination (which is against the law I might add) so many times, that I have no sympathy for the taxi drivers.
Lets get some meters!
Special kudos go to the DC cabbies who worked today - not satisfied with screwing just the customers, they went ahead and did their best to screw their fellow cabdrivers, as well! Honourable mention to the VA and MD cabs who also picked up illegal fares in the District.
Driving downtown today was great. There was no additional traffic, and we didn't have idiot cabbies doing idiot things!
Actually, all traffic was pretty light today around the Hill. Did suburban commuter parents take the day off to prepare for trick-or-treating, Halloween parties, and Satanic rituals?
I wish that cabs were gone everyday, it made my 10 minutes drive from Mt. Pleasant to downtown a whole lot safer!
yeah, i saw maybe 4 dc cabs at m & wisconsin on my way home. lots of va ones though. i'm sure they will accomplish nothing with this strike.
Mike, I know that was the case in my office - hence why I am still here tonight. Two took the whole day off, another parent left early in a small office. Surely that was replicated in other offices.
As for the cabbies, doesn't this show that the city can survive without them and therefore they actually have a hell of a lot less power than they thought? Especially on a drinking holiday. Of course that may remain to be seen until after the night.
The WP editorial today was spot on. It said this strike on a heavy drinking holiday involving kids out on city streets is unconscionable.
And the strike organizer had the nads to say he didn't know it was Halloween. What total bullshit.
Cabbies in this town show once again why they just don't get it. We're sick to death of how they operate.
I can't wait until the big cab companies come in and drive these losers out of business.
It was a pleasure walking through DC today without having cabs going way over the speed limit and honking every few minutes alerting me to their presence to see if I might want a ride.
"I can't wait until the big cab companies come in and drive these losers out of business."
If they were going to come, they would already be here -- there's not a damn thing keeping them out of the D.C. market.
Except there aren't really "big cab companies" anywhere except for NY, and that's only because the initial investment of purchasing a medallion in NY is so enormous that very few independent drivers can afford to get into the market.
eff 'em. I have not only been screwed over by hundreds of cabbies, I have been run over by one while in a cross walk!
What we need are a lot of these guys to get squeezed out with meters so that the hard working honest ones are the only ones left.
Also, it was a joy not to see the big lines of taxis sitting at hotels. Those are the worst drivers in town! They sit around idling their cars waiting for that lotto ticket ride to Dulles.
If you've literally been screwed over by hundreds of cabbies, you're either too stupid to know how the zone system works, or too weak-willed to correct the cabbie when he quotes you the wrong fare. In either case, I'm guessing you'll be too stupid or weak to do anything about it when a cabbie taking you from Dupont to the Zoo takes a scenic detour through Georgetown.
Seriously, meters have lots of advantages over zones (although it's not a completely one-sided choice), and I get why people are happy for this change. But I'm sick of this "all cabbies are crooks" bullshit. I've been taking cabs several times a week for the last six years, and the overwhelming majority of cabbies are perfectly honest.
What a pleasure that most of them were gone yesterday. The city got on better without them, on a drinking holiday, no less. Taking more cars off the street is always a good thing.
Can we get them to strike again? Permenantly?
I had half a mind to drive around last night with a sign on top of my car that read:
TAXI SCAB
dolin' out rides to the stranded.
I didn't see any stranded, though - perhaps taxi-prone people figured out the bus system?
JonboyDC,
By being screwed over I mean quoted the wrong price and had to argue with the driver over the fare. No one should have to negotiate a price of a taxi, yet under the current system we have to do this in almost every taxi we get in.
All cabs are not crooks, of course, but the current system allows them all to be if they want to. And most try it out. They wait for you to ask for the fare and if you do not, they assume you don't know and quote something wrong.
Guest33, my experience has been that in the hundreds of cab rides I've taken in the District, I've only had the wrong fare quoted to me a couple of times (once it was a dispute over whether we were still in rush hour and once it was a cabbie trying to collect a fuel surcharge that had expired the day before). On every other trip, the quoted fare has been correct. Maybe it's because I'm not riding to or from hotels, or because I don't normally cross many zone lines, or because I look like I know what I'm doing. But in my experience the overwhelming majority of cabbies follow the rules of the zone system.
(And meters have just as many opportunities for dishonesty, in the form of selecting a longer route to drive up the fare.)
Jonboy, you are a lucky man! As you and the Mayor can see from the survey that was done, you are in the very lucky minority on this one.