Taxicabs, of all things, have been on my mind lately.
I don't take cabs often, because here in the DC metro area I usually try to drive myself or take the Metro bus or subway; when I travel on business, I usually rent a car. But I have used taxis enough to make a few observations.
1. Washington DC taxis are hopelessly screwed up, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. DC cabs don't run on meters, but on an archaic and incomprehensible system of "zones" understandable only to the cab drivers, under which your fare is calculated based on how many "zones" your trip crosses. What this means is that you can take a cab between the same two places in town on different days and times, and the fares can be radically different. It's driven residents and tourists nuts for years, but the taxi drivers love it. It looks, though, as if sanity is about to break out in this town for once: Mayor Adrian Fenty has ordered the cabs to transition to a meter system which will be more comprehensible...and the best part of it was that he made the announcement at a press conference held at an intersection on which each corner was in a different "zone." Of course, the taxi drivers are up in arms and predicting the End of the World As We Know It, but everyone else thinks it's great. You can read another local blogger's take on it here. Go, Moxie!
2. While we were in Las Vegas, I noticed the taxi rates painted on the doors of the cabs. "$3.90 for the first 1/11th mile; so much for each additional 1/11th mile." What's up with that? Who came up with a figure as stupid as one-eleventh of a mile for a fare calculation? I suppose it has something to do with ensuring profit over short trips, but one-eleventh of a mile? Why not one-thirty-second? Or five-sixteenths? Or seven-fifty-sixths?
3. Taxi driving is a time-honored profession for immigrants to this country. Buy a decommissioned police car, paint your name on it, add a meter (unless you're in DC), and you're in business. Actual knowledge of the area you serve is optional, as is fluency in English and the cleaning and maintenance of the vehicle. The big cab chains (Yellow Cab, White Top, etc) are generally clean and well-maintained, but when you are picked up by "Ephraim Zabongolo's Taxicab" (not a real cab, but my example), you never quite know what you're going to get...or where you'll end up. I've taken taxis in Germany many times over the years, and the difference between clean, spiffy taxis there and hacks here is amazing.
4. Back to the idea of meters - vs - zones. One of the arguments sometimes made in favor of zones over meters is that unlike meters, the zone system doesn't keep running up the bill as you sit stuck in traffic. There's no frustration quite like sitting immobile in a traffic jam and watching the meter tick over even though you haven't moved even the smallest fraction of that magical one-eleventh of a mile. The meter's calculation of time as well as distance ensures taxi profitability even when the taxi isn't moving, but it surely does irritate this curmudgeonly passenger.
Okay, enough about taxis. I have a Metro train to catch in just about an hour, and I have a few comments on that, too ... but that's a topic for another day.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
11 comments:
Taxis are so expensive. When I went to Atlantic City and didn't walk/or use my car, we took the Jitney.
Take a taxi in Japan and it's like a limousine. The seats are clean, it smells of lavender, and the doors open automatically. The drivers even wear white gloves.
And all for Y600 for the first seven one-hundred-and-thirteenths of a mile.
noisms: I wish I had taken a taxi while I visited you in Japan... That sounds pretty good.
My sister and I had to catch a taxi home after a concert a month ago, and she kept elbowing me in the ribs for responding to the driver's conversation/unfunny jokes.
They had something like the zones in Australia for their bus and train systems. It was confusing. They had 'peak' and 'off peak' times too.
I've never been in a cab, however. Been on a train, the Metro in DC (is it still called the Metro?, I'm talking more than a decade ago), buses, and something like the Metro in St. Louis from the parking lot to the Union Station mall... but never a cab.
PS: If you ever come to Warren, don't take their cabs. The drivers are real jerks and give true meaning to the term "PA DRIVER". Renting a nice car would do you so much more good. We do have public bus, but the routes are strange and don't stretch too far out.
Interesting observations on taxi's. If you ever visit Malaysia, you'll almost certainly have to catch a taxi and the bargaining starts with the customer convincing the driver to use the meter. then when he's using the meter, you'll have to bargain for him not to add on any additional charges for traffic, time of day, number of passengers, number of bags.....
Btw, there's something wrong with my blog's URL and I can't figure it out yet so.....no post from me today :(
The Vegas rates look too complex to work out. One must just get in and pay up.
I've been in the cabs in DC. Zone to zone--get the rate before you get in the cab and bargain if you can. From the airport, the rate can vary depending on if it's a Virginia cab or a DC cab. I'm not sure how they figure that but getting the rate in advance is always a good idea.
Paying the cabbie can be a sport if your attitude is right!
As a native Washingtonian, the son of a very active teacher and DC taxicab driver and my working as a DC taxicab driver before I graduated from college motivated me to first responsibly research the origin of the unique DC taxicab zone system before I tried to address it in any manner. It appears that I was the only one who had learned that concept in respect to the fact that everyone else finds pleasure in merely indulging into their own shallow opinion and not expressing any awareness that the unique DC taxicab zone system had been initially denied when it was first proposed to replace meters in DC taxicabs.
The failure of any means of the major elements of the news media wil also explain everyone's very shallow approach to forming an informed opinion on the corrupt origin of the unique DC taxicab zone system. Everyone knows about Sen.Craig but very few know about how Congress screwed up the regulation of the DC Taxicab Industry.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, will be to employ yourself and engage google.com and enter- "Karl Rudder's Blog" and then engage into -The Unchallenged DC Taxicab Fare Structure-
Your review of my few pages of research will allow you to know of the Congressional corruption that forced DC since 1934 to use a unique zone system of taxicab fares despite the initial and detailed decisions by the DC Public Utlities Commission that had listed 20 reasons to deny "any version of the zone system" with PUC order no. 956 on 11/06/31.
Congress,DC politrickcians and the news media have enoyed brainwashing DC residents and everyone else for the past 75 years from having the slightest awareness of the corrupt origin of this issue.
Please feel free to ask any responsible Dr, automobile mechanic,parent and many others if they would approach a problem and try to solve that problem without first clearly identifying the cause of that problem. In my years of addressing this issue I have testified before the DC City Council and Taxicab Commission only to do my best at enlightening DC residents, taxicab drivers and tourists of the corrupt origin of the unique DC taxicab zone system.
Tu comprende?
Thanks to everyone for your comments.
Karl - I went to your blog and read your long and detailed posting about the history of the zone system. You are correct that there is more history to it than many of us realize. However, that history is really moot at this point - we are stuck with an antiquated zone system, for whatever complex reasons of historical shenanigans, and it's about time we brought it up to date. I appreciate the history and found it very informative, but I'm still glad that we'll be going to meters. I guess. Sometime. By the way, it wasn't quite clear to me from your blog exactly where you stand: do you favor or oppose the zone system?
Thanks for your informative and enlightening comments.
Bilbo
Thanks Bilbo for telling me that you read by blog. In respect to your expressing your being confused on just how I stand on the zone system vs. meter issue allow me to suggest that you slow down and review my blog again and be sensitive this time to the fact that I:
1. Referred to the fact that the initial government decision of PUC order no. 956 on 11/06/31 had denied the zone system for 20 reasons- why would you think I referred to that fact? (You can get a free copy of that decision by contacting the DC Public Service Commission and ask for it.)
2. My making direct referral to the fact that this detailed decision to "deny any version of the zone system to replace meters" was upheld by two court decisions
3. My having referred to a Washington Post article in 1971 that had quoted my father in having testified before Sen. Inouye in 1971 and his having specifically stated that, "The case for meters in DC taxicabs is so apparent that it begs the question of sanity to think otherwise." Comprende?
My having included many other elements of the corruption of the origin of the unique DC taxicab zone system have afforded me since 1975 opportunity to receive wonderful thanks for enlightening many of the initial and still standing government and court decisions that had denied, "any version of the zone system to replace meters in DC taxicabs."
Please let me know if the copy of my blog that you received failed to allow you to know of the four tricks that Congress has pulled since 1934 that forced DC to be the only major city in this entire world that does not use a meter to equitably compute the local taxicab fares as well as a reliable means to record and collect the tax revenue from the local taxicab industry.
Let me share with you that the last grade on my transcript from American University is my receiving an A for an independent course of study that I entitled, "The Congressional Corruption of the DC Taxicab Industry." (The Professor got my point very clearly I think if I got an "A" - what do you think?)
I hope your "reading" this effort will help you to clearly know how I stand in respect to the DC Zone System vs Meter issue. Please enlighten me if you are still confused or if you really think that the historical facts of this issue are in fact "moot".
In my view anyone insisting that the historical facts of any issue are "moot" are also telling Alex Haley to refund everyone for buying "Roots".
"An Invisible enemy cannot be defeated." General Colin Powell
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