January 22, 2008
How Much Will Your Taxi Fare Be Now?
Over the weekend the Post put up a pretty slick new taxi meter fare calculator which incorporates the new meter rates Mayor Adrian Fenty proposed last week.
Not only can you enter a beginning and ending address to calculate your meter fare, you can also drag starting and ending markers on a map to estimate approximate fares. Of course, other real world factors will affect what you'll actually see on taxi meters after April 6, such as traffic congestion and routes chosen. Still, it's pretty fun to plug and chug common taxi rides to find out how much you can expect to pay once taxi meters are in place. For example, a metered ride from U and 13th Streets NW to the main drag on Mt. Pleasant Street calculates out at $6 in normal traffic -- a full $2.80 less than what drivers charge under the zone system. On the other hand, a trip from Farragut Square to Union Station would run approximately $8, an increase of $1.50 over the zone system.
Plug some of your usual taxi rides into the application and let us know if you'll tend to save or tend to pay more with Fenty's new rate structure. Keep in mind, the calculator only works with addresses that begin and end within the District.
|
sweet! I pay an average of $2-3 cheaper for my most frequent trips!
sweet. you could use this to confront coniving cabbies.
The only trip I take with regularity is home to work (or the reverse), which now costs $8.50 ($6.50 base plus $1 for rush hour and $1 for gas surcharge), but would cost $10.80 if I didn't skirt the boundary by walking a couple of short blocks first. Assuming the gas surcharge stays put, I can now get that same cab for $7.25, without having to walk at all. I'm pretty ok with that.
One of the pro-meter arguments is that meters remove the ambiguity. The fare is what shows up on the meter, period.
I think you'd have a very hard time convincing a cabbie to reduce a fare based on this application (and what are you going to do, pull it up on your cell phone?)
13th and U to MtP would be $6.50 ($7.50 now with the surcharge), so I don't know where you're getting this $2.80 number.
As someone who walks across zone boundaries before catching a cab, this shift to meters hurts me slightly.
But now I can use my favorite Woody Allen line, from Manhattan, delivered to a then-somewhat pretty Mariel Hemingway, "You are so gorgeous, I can hardly keep my eyes on the meter."
Seriously, the best thing about hte new system is NOT the meter fares, it's the lack of extra passenger charge. Yay for the environment!
Ah pardon me, you're right if you catch the cab on U Street. But if you catch it on 13th below U, it'd be two zones. Let's call it 13th and T for the sake of clarity.
Cool - I'll save $2 to $3 if I catch a cab after drinking on 14th and P to my home in Brookland. The downside is that will be all the more reason for cabbies to refuse to drive to my lovely neighborhood in NE...
Well, on my browser Post calculator is pretty buggy, but in general longer taxi trips seem less expensive than zones and shorter ones seem more expensive, especially those that used to be within Zone One.
In any system there will be winners and losers, but I strongly support the meter system since it ensures riders are charged for the service they consume, not an arbitrary amount based on manipulated geography.
Plus, meters will, in theory, provide a mechanism for the city to monitor cabbie revenues for tax purposes and also prevent fraudulent meter reprogramming. However, I'm not convinced these issues will be magically cured with meters, since both will require the taxi commission do actually get off their lazy a**es and do something.
The most common taxi trip I take now costs $8.80 and is projected to cost between $8.00 and $11.00 (at "normal" traffic level, $8.75). Can't say I'm that happy to save a nickel per trip at the risk of dropping a few additional dollars when traffic is bad. The second most common trip is slightly better but hardly worth getting excited about; it now costs $11.00 and is projected to cost between $9.50 and $11.00 (at "normal" traffic level, $10.50).
One thing I guess this demonstrates is that I've developed cab riding habits to suit a zone system of fares. I checked out two other rides I only take now when Metro is either closed or on late night schedule and I'm blitzed off my ass (if I'm sober, I'll just walk). These do quite well; one now costs $8.80 and is projected to cost between $6.00 and $7.50 (at "normal" traffic level, $6.25), the other costs $8.80 and is projected to cost between $5.00 and $6.50 (at "normal" traffic level, $5.25). Will a three or four dollar reduction make me take more cabs in these cases and walk less? Maybe around the margins, but I'm inclined to think not -- these just aren't long enough trips to routinely require motor transportation.
"I strongly support the meter system since it ensures riders are charged for the service they consume, not an arbitrary amount based on manipulated geography."
The zone system charges riders for the service they consumed. It just doesn't have the same resolution that meters have. The amounts weren't arbitrary (if a one-zone ride cost $5 and a two-zone ride cost $3, then maybe you could make that argument).
Well, it's $9 from Columbia Heights to H St, NE, less than the $12 that two passengers would pay to get there. About the same to do a Chinatown to Columbia Heights rate (though that's usually a multiple person trip for me, so it's more expensive with that stupid per passenger charge). My other main route is Chinatown to Alexandria - not an option with this estimator.
But quite frankly, I'm thrilled not to have to argue with cab drivers about the rates anymore. Taxi drivers constantly try to overcharge me because they can. My favorite is the guy who stopped at a gas station for a "very important" reason (to buy lottery tickets) and then tried to charge me a 3 zone rate even though we'd only gone two.
Yea!
My most frequent cab ride is from my friend's apartment on Mass Ave to my apartment in Adams Morgan.
The barely-knicking-two-zones ride would now save my $3.50 during the late night hours that I normally need the cab over a bus! I advocated a meter change even if it cost me more money as I hate that walking four blocks would save me $2.20. It was arbitrary and that my 2 mile drive to my apartment cost more than a four mile trip in zone one.
LOL. The zone system charges riders for the service they consume? Please explain why travelling from 18th & Columbia to an address right across Conn. Ave (eg. the Omni Hotel) should cost $11 with the current system. Add in a few passengers, gas surcharge, and the fare climbs to over $16 for a trip that is what? A mile? Only in a city as institutionally psychotic as DC would this change require even more than a second of debate.
The fact is that those of us in places near multiple zone borders got royally screwed by the zone system for short trips because the fares were in no way equal to the amount of service (gas, time on the road, distance) equalled what we were being asked to pay.
I want to stick up for DC cabbies. I have been shocked by their honesty, on the whole, and competence. Mind you, before I moved to DC I lived in Beijing, and before that, NYC. Beijing taxi drivers will take you the wrong way around the 4th ring road if you let them.
Neither have I experienced any egregious zone gerrymandering in my time here.
i echo lots of folks here and simply applaud the lack of "extra passenger" fee. that was just obnoxious, unfair, and unnecessary
as for my common trips, i happily vote meters
Oh dear God, the meters can't come soon enough. Every Wednesday and Friday PM I wait tables in Adams Morgan, every Wednesday and Friday PM I take a cab home after work, 2 out of every Friday PM's a month I have to argue with a damn cabbie that "no, I make this trip 2 nights a week and have for over a year now, the cost is 8.90 not 90878976867" or however much he thinks it is. Some Friday PMs, like this past one for instance, I had to do this not just once but twice...the first cab said "the fare is 12" to which I said "see ya", the 2nd one, asking why I got out of the first cab, basically started a passive agressive fight about the fare so I'd get out (which I did on Florida). See, what these idiots fail to realize is, a) not everyone in AdMor on weekends is drunk and b) adults will typically tip. The cabbie that finally took me home got mucho dollars for simply not being a dickhead.
I don't even care if the fare is more with the meters, I'll just be glad to not have to go through with this anymore!
i really have absolutely no idea what most of you are talking about. maybe i'm super lucky or something but i have never, ever had a bad experience with the zones or with cab drivers in dc being outrageous dicks. sure, i've had drivers make up silly charges for extra bags, etc but you just say "no." in my experience, the only people who have the nasty fights with the cabbies are the people who are irrationally angry about the zones (probably because they live just inside or outside one) and start fights themselves.
i hope i am not the only one who realizes this is a disaster. i just computed a cab ride from logan circle to union station, a route i often take when running late for work or when the f-ing buses are not coming. it will jump from $6.50 to more than $16. that is just nonsense. and don't even think about taking a metered cab if you work downtown and live in the far out neighborhoods. if you want to take a cab home instead of risking getting stabbed walking home from the bus stop at night, it'll cost you.
this system was clearly designed to ferry people who are too good to walk or take the bus from their condos in logan to various nighlife destinations. they are the ones who get a break here.
jpk, try your route out again. $16 is about
$6-8 too much.
blubbo - it is $16 or so for heavy traffic. the calculator says that is 47 minutes. i assume the morning rush is heavy traffic but 47 minutes is a bit long. i've sat there in a cab for 30 or more, though. so it's safe to say that the cost will approach $16.
blubbo - it is $16 or so for heavy traffic. the calculator says that is 47 minutes. i assume the morning rush is heavy traffic but 47 minutes is a bit long. i've sat there in a cab for 30 or more, though. so it's safe to say that the cost will approach $16.
JPK, you could always catch a really quick and cheap cab to the nearest red line station then metro over. that's the fun of meters -- you can take quick cheap trips! it'll be cheaper and quicker than what you might do now sitting in traffic for 30+ minutes.
JPK--I agree that the zone system has been fine with me and that it's only the uninformed who cannot tell the (attempt-to-cheat-me) cab driver the correct charges. However, the only reason I will save from my usual cab ride from home out to my nightlife destinations and back will be the part of the trip where I am not paying the extra passenger fee. Otherwise, this system is more expensive across the board for me.
It would be interesting to see more hypotheticals that address people who don't live/work/party entirely within the urban core. My own address is outside the DC borders so it wouldn't work, but I used to live in the section of Takoma just inside the DC line. Calculating fares from downtown locations to the TP/Silver Spring border area you get results that show meter fares as being more or less identical to zone fares, but with time estimates that might be a little on the low side, especially if you're travelling at high traffic hours. I've heard from others that fares calculated from Anacostia and other far SE neighborhoods also end up higher or with no savings (and with the original flag drop fee, they were consistently higher).
I never understood why people have so much trouble reading a zone map if they are from DC. Yes cabbies occasionally try to rip me off, but lots of time when I call them on it they end up giving me the ride for free instead of risking me call the taxi commission.
Yes if you stay in zone 1 or 2, your fare could be cheaper, but not if you are going farther. I used to be able to go from near AU (just inside the Nebraska Ave zone boundry)to Potomoac Ave metro for 12 bucks. That is good stuff.
Those of you saying you like meters because the cabbies won't be able to rip you off, what makes you think that they won't take you indirect routes to get somewhere. That is what I love about the zone system, I know the cabbies have an incentive to get me to my destination as quickly as possible. Also that conjestion charge is going to hit a lot harder thne some og you may realize.
Haha. I cant wait for the day when the real fares turn out to be higher than the "estimated" ones and everyone feels tricked by this WaPo page.
Other factors everyone is either ignoring or doesn't want to think about is that these meters will be both a) likely to be 'hacked' [no pun intended] to register at a different speed/time/distance to increase the fare rate & b) this tampering will likely be enforced to the extent that current regulations are enforced... which is not at all.
Seriously, I'd love to see when the last time a cab was fined for refusing a fare due to race/destination, or his vehicle being in disrepair, filthy, etc.
Some of the routes this things comes up with are wacky. From Dupont to Georgetown U, for example, rather than coming across P or Q Sts, it wants to all the way down to M, then over to and up Wisconsin.
As for those people who will be paying more, that's a natural result of fixing the inequitable zone system. Zone fares are arbitrary in that the fare you pay has no direct connection the distance you travel or the cab time you use. If you've been the beneficiary of really long single-zone trips, you will and should pay more. If you happen to get that 55 minute ride from Logan to Union Station, why shouldn't you pay more than the guy whose non-rush-hour ride only takes 10 minutes? The single greatest benefit of time-and-distance meters isn't that the driver can't cheat you anymore; I've never had a real problem with that. It's that your basis for your fare will now be rational and fair.