Given the record high gasoline prices consumers are paying at the pump right now, it's not terribly surprising that the D.C. Taxicab Commission took "emergency action" this week to extend the expiration date of the current $1 per trip gas surcharge by another 120 days. The previous gas surcharge, which was also an "emergency" extension, went into effect at the end of January and expired on May 28. When the $1 gas surcharge cycle we're......

The people behind DC Residents for Reasonable Taxi Fares, the web site that's been calling for Mayor Fenty to make some significant revisions to his taxi meter proposals, have sent out a last-minute push for residents to send like-minded input to the District. The deadline for public comment set by the D.C. Taxicab Commission on the proposed move from zones to time and distance meters, which Mayor Fenty has said would include a $4.50$4.00 flag......

The Washington Post says that taxicab drivers are handing out surveys to riders about the impending change from zones to meters. Drivers have until Jan. 8 to hand in public comments to the D.C. Taxicab Commission and the mayor's office, which means that if you get in a D.C. cab between now and then, odds are pretty good you'll be asked to complete a survey. We haven't spotted one of the surveys ourselves yet, but......

If you've taken a D.C. taxicab since the stroke of midnight last night, you may have been surprised by a cab driver insisting that you pay an extra $1 gas surcharge. Didn't the gas surcharge expire in September? It did, but last week the D.C. Taxicab Commission quietly passed an emergency measure to bring back the $1 fee, beginning at 12:01 a.m. this morning and lasting until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, January 29, 2008. “Prices......

Given his position as chairman of the committee that oversees transportation and the D.C. Taxicab Commission, we knew headline-loving Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham wouldn't pass up an opportunity to create his own spectacle in the wake of Mayor Adrian Fenty's announcement about the transition to taxi meters. But it seems as though Graham was only able to muster up the resources to put together a 2 p.m. public roundtable at the Wilson......

>> Mayor Fenty has changed his mind and now says emails to and from city officials will be kept indefinitely. [WTOP] >> More Fenty decisions! He's considering a drastic change to the role of the hated D.C. Taxicab Commission. [Examiner] >> Several people on a Boston-bound flight out of DCA were taken to a hospital after complaining of feeling sick and were found to have elevated carbon monoxide levels. [WCVB] >> Jack Bauer spotted in......

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty announced this afternoon that new time and distance meters for D.C. taxis must be installed no later than April 1, 2008. The announcement came about nine hours after the end of a 24-hour taxicab driver strike in response to the Mayor's decision to abandon the zone system. Fenty and D.C. Taxicab Commission Chairman Leon Swain Jr. also announced the pricing structure for the new meters: a $4 flag drop charge, then......

Happy Halloween, Washington! From the looks of things, Mayor Adrian Fenty is in a festive mood for the holiday, and had a great time right alongside everyone else at last night's 17th Street High Heel Race. The Examiner isn't so sure Fenty's high spirits will last though, as members of the D.C. Council are ticked off at the Mayor for snubbing their hearings by not sending a representative from his office to attend them. Hopefully......

There seems to be some healthy skepticism about the planned taxicab driver strike on Wednesday, which is set to commence at 6 a.m. on Halloween morning and last for 24 hours. How many drivers will really strike? Could it actually change Mayor Adrian Fenty's mind about switching to time and distance meters? Is the fact that it's planned for Halloween going to impact the number of drunk drivers out on the road? If D.C. taxi......

Mayor Adrian Fenty has ordered all D.C. taxicabs to switch to time and distance meters, abandoning forever the controversial zone system that has been unique to Washington for decades. “As we work to become a world-class city, it is essential that all aspects of District government are user friendly, fair and efficient for residents and visitors alike,” Fenty said in a statement released to the media. “District residents are overwhelmingly in favor of modernizing......

Imagine this -- the District could have hybrid taxicabs before it even resolves its long-running dispute between meters and the zone system. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) yesterday introduced legislation that would offer a one-time tax credit to encourage the purchase of hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles for use as taxicabs. The legislation would also establish a set of goals for converting the city's taxicab fleet to hybrid vehicles -- 5 percent by 2009 and......

Well, this isn't exactly what we were expecting. Rather than voting to endorse a change to meters, or keeping the existing zone system, or the third-option of those "zone meters" we talked about yesterday, the D.C. Taxicab Commission today decided to do ... absolutely nothing. The Post has more, describing today's meeting as being deadlocked, which led to the non-decision to recommend that Mayor Fenty make the call all on his own. This is just......

Mayor Fenty has until October 31 to issue an executive order about whether the city will make a switch away from the much-maligned yet beloved-by-many zone system in our taxis, but tomorrow, the D.C. Taxicab Commission will meet to vote on their recommendation to the Mayor. Everyone knows that the zone system is unpopular, especially with visitors to the city who often end up angry and confused about how much they should be charged for......

We've spent plenty of time debating whether or not the District's taxicabs should stick to the zone system or join the rest of the modern world and employ meters. Last year, Congress passed legislation giving the District until this October to switch to meters, and more recently, the D.C. Taxicab Commission released a study that found that on average, meters were cheaper. Of course, cab drivers have long opposed the prospect of a switch, and......

>> "A public meeting on taxicab meters scheduled for Wednesday has been canceled, apparently because too many people were interested in attending and the D.C. Taxicab Commission couldn't guarantee them parking." [Examiner] >> A former escort linked to embattled Sen. David Vitter is set to testify that alleged D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey's escort service provided illegal prostitution. [WTOP] >> Libertarian billionaire Robert Levy would like to give all D.C. residents a handgun. Or......

An alert tipster sent us a link to a District of Columbia Taxicab Commission release we missed. The results of the Taxicab Information Project, launched in October 2005 to study fare differences between D.C. taxis outfitted with meters against standard zone charges, were made public on June 19. Time and distance meters were installed in 21 D.C. cabs. At the beginning of each trip, drivers were instructed to drop the meter flag and record......

The Examiner reports today that the D.C. Taxicab Commission released its new zone-fare map to District cab drivers to place in their vehicles this week. Which seems odd, since the maps have been ready since February, and have been spotted in various cabs in the city since then (though by no means all of them). The new maps, part of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s 100 Day plan, were designed to be less confusing than the......

Two long years ago, gas prices in the city were hovering around an eye-popping $2.59 for a gallon of regular. That may seem like chump change these days, but back then, it had a lot of people worried. At the top of that list were D.C. cabbies. Worried that the rising cost of gas would cut into their profits, the D.C. Taxicab Commission responded to the price spike by implementing a $1.00 per ride surcharge......

Who needs government when we have Google? Yesterday, we reported that DDOT's suggestion for a new and (slightly) improved D.C. Taxi Zone Map is being needlessly hamstrung by the lovely people over at the D.C. Taxicab Commission. They feel that city streets on the new map appear too bright and, you know, visible. Lucky for us, technology, in its quest to make the world as we know it obsolete, has intervened. We stumbled upon this......

Even from the time before a hack named Samson trawled Washington's streets, searching for fares and pityin' fools galore, D.C. residents have had issues with the city's taxicab service, from ride refusal to incivil drivers. This week, the D.C. Taxicab Commission began hosting a series of community fora in each Ward of the city for residents to raise questions and voice concerns over a host of cab-related issues. Of course, if DCist's comment boards are......

And it was just beginning to look like the hopes and dreams of District bloggers and commenters everywhere were going to come true. Yesterday, the Examiner reported that the D.C. Taxicab Commission would release a report in the next few weeks expected to support ditching D.C.'s zone system in favor of regular old meters. The six-month study was conducted by George Washington University and pulls data from over 30,000 cab rides, comparing metered and......

As a Brookland resident, one comes to realize that cabbing home from District night spots brings its own set of difficulties. Despite living just blocks from major D.C. landmarks and minutes from downtown, neighborhood residents learn that when hailing a cab, they're going to have to get in the car before telling the driver the destination, they're going to have to give him detailed directions on how to get there, and they're going to have......

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......

On the day following the D.C. Council's second and final endorsement of a smoking ban in bars and restaurants, we can expect plenty of media coverage of the public's reaction. Are residents pleased to be smoke-free, or nervous at what consequences may lay ahead for the hospitality industry? According to a WJLA headline, which really scooped the competition, "Patrons Have Mixed Opinions On D.C. Smoking Ban." Hell, we could have told you that. Just read......

Does Vienna Really Look Like That? It's one thing when out-of-town producers come into the area and screw up backdrops. We were almost willing to forgive the producers of Fox's "Bones," whose ignorance of the area's geography led them to place the U.S. Capitol within eyesight of Dulles International Airport. But it's a whole other thing when the mistake is made by locals. In an online ad for The Four Winds at Oakton, an upscale......

Good morning, Washington. We thought this photo, of the headquarters building of the Federal Aviation Administration, was a good visual metaphor for city's bureaucratic culture. Today will be cloudy in the morning but becoming partly sunny in the afternoon with highs in the 70s. Meters Could Be Coming to D.C. Cabs: An experimental study of using meters in D.C. taxi cabs we reported on almost a year ago is finally under way, as the first......

Come May 1, the steadily increasing global price of oil may finally hit home for District residents who cab it to and from home, work and play. Taxi fares are set to increase by up to $1 a trip to offset rising gas prices, reports the Common Denominator. The increases will be implemented for a 120-day trial period, after which the D.C. Taxicab Commission will decide whether to make them permanent. Global oil prices have......

(Photo of 19th Street at Dupont Circle by Mike Grass) What's the Navy's East Potomac Secret? In a city full of open secrets, one mystery seems to be baffling those have been visiting East Potomac Park. According to the Post, the Navy has been constructing something behind some fences. But what it is exactly is all up to speculation. The Post throws out these suggestions: a sensor station guarding the 14th Street bridges; an......

Announced just the day before, last week's work stoppage by D.C. cabs surprised many. After stories in the W. Times and the Post, things seem back to normal - for now. The cab drivers are upset by a proposal by Mayor Anthony Williams to abolish the 9-member Taxicab Commission, and replace it with a "Taxicab and Limousine Services Administration" under the D.C. Department of Transportation, which would be led by an appointed administrator. To make......