Results tagged “taxizones”

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.

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.