Results tagged “taximeters>”

It's been exactly one month since the city switched all of its taxi cabs over to time and distance meters, and we've spent that month asking every driver and frequent taxi passenger we've run across what their experiences have been. The vast majority of drivers we've spoken to agree that within the city, fares by and large even out to be about the same -- some are a little more, some are a little less, but none are so different that it might put them out of business. Compliance with installing meters ended up going fairly smoothly, amazingly enough, and overall the new system is working pretty well.

We're now two-thirds of the way through the month of May, with only 11 days left until the date by which Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to begin fining D.C. taxicab drivers $1000 every time they are caught picking up a fare without a time and distance meter installed in their vehicles. We've definitely noticed more and more taxis with meters installed over the last week, many with those helpful "D.C. Certified Meter Taxicab" stickers in their windows (although, often while still displaying zone fare maps inside the cab).

WTOP is reporting that the the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority plans to ban taxicabs without meters from taxi stands at Reagan National Airport. That's good. Regular roundtrips to DCA are the D.C. taxi driver's bread and butter, and the airport taxi stands have dispatch employees there to assist passengers who are ready and able to enforce the meter rule.

WTOP's Adam Tuss and Kristi King did what I wish I had been able to do today: they went out and rode in a bunch of cabs, both to see how many they found that had meters installed, and to get a few real-life comparisons on price differences.

Via the Post, one more blow was dealt to District taxicab drivers who are still hoping to delay the implementation of time and distance meters in all city cabs. D.C. Superior Court Judge Brook Hedge has denied their request for an injunction to block the meter system from being put in place while they wait for their case to be heard by the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Over at City Desk, Mike DeBonis is reporting early from the mayor's taxi meter presser that Fenty will not be extending the May 1 deadline for taxi drivers to have time and distance meters installed in their cabs. Barring further action by a judge to delay the deadline once again, the District's cab drivers will now have to scramble to get their meters installed by next Thursday, or face $1,000 fines each time they pick up a fare without a meter.

The final road block to Mayor Adrian Fenty's mandate to switch the District's taxicabs to time and distance meters has at last been removed, reports WTOP. A judge has ruled in the city's favor in a case brought by a group of taxi drivers who tried to argue that Fenty did not have the authority to make his decision on meters. Now that the ruling confirming the mayor has power over taxi regulation is in place, taxi cab drivers only have until May 1 to have meters installed in their cabs, or else face $1,000 penalties each time they drive without one.

The group that calls itself the Coalition of Taxicab Drivers, Associations and Companies has created an online petition to gather support from those in favor of switching all D.C. taxicabs to the so-called "zone meters", as opposed to the time and distance meters Mayor Adrian Fenty has ordered will soon be mandatory. A judge recently pushed back the date by which the time and distance meters need to be in place to May 1, as opposed to the original date of April 6.

D.C. taxicab drivers may have won a small victory in their attempts to derail Mayor Fenty's time and distance meter mandate this week, when a judge awarded them an extra month of the zone system thanks to a silly typographical on the part of the District government. But a hilarious story in today's Post by Sue Anne Pressley Montes outlines their new strategy in getting what they want (namely, zone meters), which includes tactics such as attempting to gather enough signatures to recall Mayor Adrian Fenty (ha!) and something called a "paparazzi campaign" that could find taxi drivers photographing elected officials they encounter (huh?).

Those of you who've had April 6 circled on your calendars as the first day you can expect all D.C. cabs will be outfitted with time and distance meters, time to make a little adjustment: the deadline has been pushed back to May 1.

You're not going to like the sound of this: the final set of rules governing the switch from the zone system to time and distance taxi meters were published in the in the D.C. Register on Friday, and the additional passenger fee was added back in.

This morning a large group of taxicab drivers caravaned slowly down 16th St. NW and circled around Freedom Plaza, honking their horns and creating a large traffic jam all around the downtown area. NBC4 reports that police closed Pennsylvania Avenue for a brief time, but that the closure may not have been related to the taxi protest - a motorcade was spotted in the area.

We've had enough reports from eagle-eyed readers now to say that an unannounced taxicab strike is underway today. Rolling taxi strikes originally began last week on Monday, and were supposed to continue on Tuesday of this week, then Wednesday of next week, and so on. No strike actually occurred, however, on Tuesday. This 2nd-week Thursday action was not made known to the public beforehand.

It's the second week in what was supposed to be an indefinite period of rolling taxicab strikes. Last week's strike, on Monday, definitely affected morning commutes and traffic, but seemed to end before really causing problems for folks trying to catch a cab on their way from work to happy hour. Now it's Tuesday on the second week, and we have to ask: are the taxi strikes already failing?

Assessments of the effectiveness of Monday's first rolling taxi strike are decidedly mixed. The Post takes a look at how limousine drivers took advantage of the opportunity to charge $20 for a one-zone fare yesterday morning. The Examiner offers just a quick recap before quoting Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham as seeming to side almost completely with the cabbies.

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.

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 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 drop, are due Monday, Jan. 7.

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.

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...

Good morning, Washington. It's Friday, and the city is still reacting to yesterday afternoon's announcement about how our new taxi meters are going to work. We already told you about the $4 flag drop, which many people are already saying is too high, and the fact that taxi roof lights will go on and off automatically to indicate whether a cab has a passenger, which everyone seems to agree is long overdue. One more thing...

We can't believe we at first skimmed over this little nugget from the Mayor's announcement this afternoon about the upcoming switch to taxi meters:The meters will be connected to the light on top of the cab allowing passengers to see if a taxi is available. The light will be illuminated when a taxi does not have a customer and will extinguish when a fare is activated on the meter.Whoa! That's another big change. Adding...

It's that time again, the best comments of the previous week. It was a bountiful week, with World Bank protests, Metro employees chowing down, and new dog park regulations Read on, and register if you haven't! ----- Everybody had something to say about D.C. switching to taxi meters. shawndc: I'm glad Fenty had the balls to stand up to the Taxi commission and move ahead with meters. Let's hope they can get it up and...

(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...