January 16, 2008
Fenty Lowers Taxi Meter Flag Drop to $3, Eliminates Surcharges Updated
Mayor Adrian Fenty held a news conference this morning announcing lower fares for the new time and distance taxi meters he has mandated to be operational in all D.C. taxicabs by April 6. The flag drop will be $3 instead of $4. There will also be no more rush hour surcharge, and no more additional passenger fee.
The announcement comes as a huge victory to grassroots campaigns like DC Residents for Reasonable Taxi Fares, which sponsored an online petition to get some of these very changes and encouraged residents to contact the mayor with their views on the new taxi meter pricing structure.
The City Paper's Mike DeBonis gives Fenty credit for listening to community input on the taxi meter issue. The Mayor said that the 2,100 comments his office received during a 60-day public comment period, of which nearly 100 percent agreed that the original proposed fare structure was too high, were the main influence on his decision to lower meter prices.
Other changes to the mayor's proposal for meter fares include reducing snow emergency surcharges to 25 percent instead of doubling them, and placing a fare cap of any ride within the District at $18.90, plus surcharges. Fuel surcharges will remain, however.
The Taxicab Industry Group has already announced plans for another taxicab strike similar to the one held on Oct. 31 to protest the lowered fares, likely in early February.
UPDATE 2:02 p.m.: Based on what we just heard on WTOP, cab drivers are apparently going to be encouraged to strike one day a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., beginning Monday, Feb. 4. The strikes would rotate through the days of the week, so it would be Tuesday the following week, Wednesday the week after, etc., until April.
|
Fenty-you're my hero! You may be indirectly responsible for the death of innocents, but at least my drunk rides home are cheaper now!
THIS is much more like it. The previous rates were excessive and really not much of an improvement over the current system. Bravo to Fenty for actually listening on this one.
wow, i approve.
keep striking, ya'all!! the boondoggle is over!
Sweet! While I'd like to see some sort of empirical analysis of why a $3 flag drop makes more sense than, say $2.50 or $2, I'll still take the price drop.
Losing the extra passenger and rush hour surcharges is awesome. That bs passenger charge was always particularly grating.....
I'm...shocked...Fenty actually listened to...anyone!
I am proud of our mayor today!
The cab drivers should at least take solice in knowning that they are not being forced to replace their used 1973 used Crown Victorias with new cars that don't smell like 18th Street on Sunday morning.
Wow. Pretty impressive that such a large number of people wrote in to complain.
And the taxi strike is really not going to do anything other than piss people off at taxidrivers and (yet again) get rid of any goodwill the public may feel for them.
However, there's also Jim Graham's bill that would shoot down the Fenty plan and replace it with a GPS zone system. I believe the first reading on that bill is in early February. So perhaps Jimbo needs to receive a flood of emails, calls and letters as well.
This is excellent news, especially removing the bogus extra passenger surcharge. On any given cab ride, the extra weight of an additional passenger probably only increases the fuel costs by just a few cents.
i think this may be good news but it may be bad. it's a little alarming that the mayor would base this decision on comments from the public rather than a reasoned, empirical awnalysis of what the impact of this all will be. is a $3 drop rate enough to allow a reasonable number of cab drivers to be able to make a decent living in a tiny 10-square-mile city? will this whole meter thing make it so that i will never be able to get a cab, kinda like in philly (meters) and in certain less-wealthy parts of nyc (meters). quibble if you want, dc, about service, confusing zones, etc. but it is hella easy to get a cab in this town. i fear that this new system will put a lot of drivers out of business and concentrate the remaining cabs in the drunk walk routes in the ritzier parts of town. so i support the strike. get a taste of what things could be like from now on.
Strike away jerks
better. much better.
go fenty go
Taxi-free holidays once a week?
I cannot wait! Pedestrians rejoice!
Yeah, fist, I'm with you. Driving in this city is so much easier without the taxis. The more strikes the better, from my perspective.
Yeah, fist, I'm with you. Driving in this city is so much easier without the taxis. The more strikes the better, from my perspective.
I'm sure the cab drivers will continue to argue that the mayor failed to "consult" with us passengers.
I think all of the changes are great except for the fuel surcharge and the removal of the rush-hour charge.
Fuel is a variable cost so its ridiculous that it is a flat fee rather than added to the per mile charge.
Removing the rush hour fee is a bad idea as well because it is put in place to encourage more taxi drivers to work when they are needed most. No, the idle fee does not make up for the fact that they are stuck in traffic. It probably works out to a similar hourly rate whether they work during the middle of the day when there is less demand but open streets that during rush hour when there is a huge demand and crowded streets.
New York is smart enough to recognize this. That is also why the have a night fee, to encourage more taxis to work when it is less desirable but still needed. Without a rush hour fee it is going to be much more difficult to find a taxi during this time. I'm glad I don't have a normal commute schedule.
Cranky, the zone meter bill is actually from Barry and Mendelson, not Graham. I don't think it'll go anywhere -- it's still in committee, and it's got no cosponsors.
Hutz, you commute via taxi? With fewer taxis out there during rush hour, my bus moves more quickly.
"quibble if you want, dc, about service, confusing zones, etc. but it is hella easy to get a cab in this town."
surely you jest. it is preciseless because of the zone system that cab drivers refuse to drive passengers to neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Glover Park and Mt. Pleasant from Dupont Circle.
Last Saturday night I watched the same cab driver lock his doors so no one could get in and turn down three different fares to these three locations (I was the Mt. Pleasant fare). I watched Glover Park get turned down by several cabs, despite GP's proximity to Georgetown where numerous intoxicated post-frat boys eagerly awaited the cab experience.
I am not sure exactly where this cab driver WAS willing to go. and I know that cab drivers aren't supposed to turn down fares because of the destination, but they do all the time. it is ridiculous to say it is 'hella easy' to get a cab in DC.
I'll add "hella easy to get a cab" if you're white. Maybe the cabbies will be forced to pick up more black folks & those heading to poorer neighborhoods if they have to make more runs/fares a day to make the same money they do now.
That is why you immediately sit in the cab and tell them you are going to call the police and you will not get out until they come. It works for me ALL the time. They never want to go to NE neighborhoods.
I've never seen the empirical evidence, but there always seemed to be an implicit argument that the zones were fairer to minorities. Mostly, I think they were simply unfair to people who lived just outside zone boundaries, whatever their skin color.
Anything that reduces the profitability of taxi driving will have an effect on availability of service and, probably, increase concentration in the industry as only larger, more efficient operations survive. (Not that efficiency is a bad thing.)
As it is, DC claims to have a very high number of taxi drivers per capita. However, given the ease of entry into the business, it seems like a lot of those drivers operate only part time. How often have you needed a taxi, and none are in sight except for a half dozen parked nearby? Hopefully, leaner operations means maximizing the use of licensed cabs at all hours.
And for once, the time and distance meter should mean that we have eliminated the manifest bias of drivers for picking up short distance fares.
To those of you worried that this sharp drop in fees may result in less cabs on the streets:
It might--I don't know enough about the economics of the taxi industry to be able to say one way or the other. But I will say that if the fact that they are no longer allowed to gouge customers results in some taxi drivers going out of business, then those drivers have bad business model. If their viability as a business is dependant upon them being able to charge my wife and I $10 plus tip to ride from Dupont to Logan, then they are not a viable business.
It's not surprising that the taxi drivers would be up in arms over the proposed new regs--they're coddled more in DC than in any other city that I'm aware of. But that's hardly a good reason to support keeping things as-is.
I'll add "hella easy to get a cab" if you're white.
C'mon, that goes without saying. Of course Hillman will probably chime in now talking about how much cabbies hate homosexuals.
cab drivers, i don't want to see your tears. you're just pissed you can no longer claim to have gone through three zones when we all know it was just one.
To echo GreenA's comments, the current fare structure, where extra passengers cost $1.50 and separate destinations cost the full fare, encourages cab drivers to refuse to transport people traveling alone. I have actually had a cab driver tell me I'm "lucky" that he was willing to take me home since no-one likes to take a single passenger when they could get a group. Of course, a few minutes later he tried to convince me that when traveling on 14th Street the zone line is at Florida Ave rather than U Street.
I've lived in Philly. It was "hella" easier to get a cab from Center City to West Philly than it is to get a cab from Dupont to Mt. P.
Having already been forced to pay the $4 drop rate (to cabbies claiming the new rate was in effect) on two different occassions since October, I'm happy I reduced my usual tip in those cases.
Praised be to Fenty.
And on the 7th day, caddies rested. And people rejoiced.
cabbies, duh.
cabbies, duh.
GreenA, sit in the cab first, then declare destination. Works for me getting home to MtP everytime.
They're not supposed to refuse the fare anyway, but that's a whole 'nuther enchilada.
amen to no more double-pickups!
will this whole meter thing make it so that i will never be able to get a cab, kinda like in philly (meters)
To echo what Esmerelda said: it's much, MUCH easier to get a cab in Philadelphia. I wind up doing it about once a week on average, and have never had a problem -- and half those trips are from a residential area in South Philly. Cheaper, better service, nicer cabs (mostly) and they can take credit cards.
UGh i cant say how much I hate the move to meters. The other night I only had $10 and the driver took me all the way home to Capitol Hill. On a meter, I would be kicked out halfway there.
It's kind of hard to sit in the cab when the doors are locked.
Praise be to Fenty.
This is particularly good because a lot of the pro-zone meter crowd was trying to take the anger over the high drop-fare and use it to justify throwing out the distance meter plan. Hopefully this will take some wind out of their sails.
Back when the new fares were first announced, Kojo Nnamdi commented that a cynic might conclude that Fenty was trying to pander to everyone at once, by setting the fares so high initially that he would be "forced" to lower them in response to the inevitable public outcry. That way, Fenty could still claim to the taxi drivers that he was trying to protect their pocketbooks with his initial proposal, while looking like a hero to everyone else for listening to the public and dropping the fares to where he planned on having them all along...
Kojo Nnamdi commented that a cynic might conclude that Fenty was trying to pander to everyone at once
Was that cynic named Kojo?
Hell, sit ON the cab. It's about time they meet some demand for customer service. Jeezus, everytime small change is enacted to pull DC kicking and screaming into the 21st century!
"quibble if you want, dc, about service, confusing zones, etc. but it is hella easy to get a cab in this town."
surely you jest. it is preciseless because of the zone system that cab drivers refuse to drive passengers to neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Glover Park and Mt. Pleasant from Dupont Circle.
Last Saturday night I watched the same cab driver lock his doors so no one could get in and turn down three different fares to these three locations (I was the Mt. Pleasant fare). I watched Glover Park get turned down by several cabs, despite GP's proximity to Georgetown where numerous intoxicated post-frat boys eagerly awaited the cab experience.
I am not sure exactly where this cab driver WAS willing to go. and I know that cab drivers aren't supposed to turn down fares because of the destination, but they do all the time. it is ridiculous to say it is 'hella easy' to get a cab in DC.
And GreenA gets the award for most time elapsed between double posts. ....
I just want consistency. They're either honking at me when I don't need one, or never around when I do.
all of you who have cabs falling from the sky on you in philly must be very lucky. i honestly don't remember even seeing a cab anywhere in town other than 30th street station and areas where there are a lot of hotels. when i leave my apartment in dc i have to fight the cabs off if i even pause on the sidewalk. and i've also never been refused service. you get in and tell them where you're going and they take you there. easy.
Sitting in the cab doesn't always guarantee they're going to take you home. I once had a cab driver refuse to go any deeper into the neighborhood than Mt. Pleasant Street and Park Road because she "didn't feel safe."
I told her that was fine, but that I wasn't going to pay her and that I was going to report her to the Taxi Commission. She didn't take kindly to that. Oh, the drama!
(Speaking of, who do you complain to when the Taxi Commission ignores you?)
thank you, thank you! it takes a lot of hard work to double post almost 2 hours apart. I'd like to start of by thanking the little people...
Seriously, I get in the cab first whenever I can. if the cab is locked, then there is obviously not much I can do. and as Esmeralda points out, sometimes even when you're in the cab, the driver will refuse to go anywhere.
the point is I shouldn't have to be sneaky to get a cab, and if the current zone system makes cab drivers reluctant to take me home, then I support a meter system that does.
Do I have to wait until April? Can I start paying this now?
Wow Nice job fenty! not only will make my life easier but all those tourists who get ripped off will no longer have to worry about where the hell the zone borders are. But then again i always get a kick out of seeing tourists put a 20 in the metrobus farbox and expecting to get change....
I hate cabbies. I had one add $4 onto the "extras" side the other night from the airport. I would have confronted, but it was reallllly late and I decided that it would just get to be his built-in tip.
How about for every strike day, DC just waives the restriction on VA or MD cabbies operating in the District.
Once you are in the cab and they refuse to take you, then I would just call the police while you are still in the cab. If they refuse to take you and you are outside the cab make sure you get their plate numbers and call the police. The police will come, especially if you are leaving a bar or nightclub. Also, the cab driver I had that refused to take me home had warrants out for his arrest. It was really funny when the police came and took his ass to jail. It was also funny seeing a police officer catch me a cab home.
I totally agree with Reid that the ban on MD and VA cabs should be lifted on days when DC cabs threaten to strike. Also, I've only heard one person mention it so far, but why not make cabs accept credit cards? It means I don't have to make sure I have cash on me, and it improves the drivers safety from being robbed of all that cash.
You're my hero, dc4life. Good idea, Reid.
I (heart) Reid's idea. That would totally drive the DC taxi drivers nuts.
the real benefit is that you won't get ripped for 30 when you want to go to VA from AdMo. The meter will make them to charge you a legit amount. I was actually surprised the other day when I got in an honest cab. AdMo to Old Town Alexandria is only 16.50 by the book. I typically get quoted prices of $30 by all the cabbies, its like they were all in on it.
So long Zone System. You legitimized taking advantage of people.
I'm not wedded to any particular fare structure, but I'm also not thrilled that the decision was based on popularity rather than actual study of what fare made the most sense. Setting taxi rates is part of overall transportation planning, and it should be done with some thought as to the effect the rates will have on the number of cabs available at peak times (and at off-peak times).
However, I am annoyed that Fenty seems to have kept the baggage surcharge. I know it sucks for drivers when they're expected to load a heavy suitcase for a bastard who doesn't tip for the service, but a surcharge on completely undefined items of "luggage" is moronic. Most drivers never charge this because nobody can even agree when it applies, and the few times I've seen it charged it leads to a fight.
- The next step is to revamp the Taxi Commission and institute regular testing & review, plus two specific bonds. The first would be an insurance bond valued at $30,000 and the second would be a "Badge Fee" of $10,000 cash. The Badge, or "medallion" as they call it in NYC, should be non-transferable so that only the licensed taxi driver can operate the vehicle. As it is now you have entire extended families driving a single cab 24/7, which is not only dangerous in terms of operating a vehicle for that length of time every single day, but you you get cousins, brothers, uncles, etc... who are driving long hours late at night without a break to keep the taxi making money.
- Secondly, I once had a taxi driver for Diamond Cab try to charge me a "luggage fee" for putting my wheelchair in the back of his station wagon. I was transitioning from a car accident to a cane but still had to use the wheelchair for long distances. I told him not to bother taking it out, I would do it myself. As I went around to the back I dialed the dispatcher. He was pissed because I caught his scam.
- And lastly, there needs to be a metro area revamping of certain rules. As it is now if you catch a cab in DC and need to go to Dulles Airport the DC cabby can't pick up any fares for the return ride. There are only a few MD cab companies that can pick up in DC, and the same for VA based companies. There should be a meeting with all of the local municipalities to write and enforce a metro area wide system of laws to allow a broader base of companies to operate here, which would serve to stop penalizing the passenger when they try to go from one jurisdiction to another.