After what feels like decades, the D.C. Taxicab commission finally changed the arcane, inconvenient zone pricing system to a time and distance system involving a meter. After fighting this all the way to the Supreme Court, Illustrious Mayor Fenty finally got this new legislation (is it legislation?) approved. A great victory for the consumer, yes? Not so much.
So what does this mean for your average D.C. cab rider? Basically nothing. Under the auspices of a very quietly released study, the Taxicab Commission found that under the current meter system, the average price of a cab ride is nearly identical to that of a zone system. Which means still absurdly expensive.
One of the goals of switching to the meter was to get rid of some of the surcharges that plague us today. The gas surcharge, the rush hour surcharge, the additional passenger surcharge, and most importantly, the “You’re drunk (and/or a tourists) and I’m going to fuck you over” surcharge—where does it end? Well, thanks to the new regulations, it doesn’t. The gas surcharge is still in place, and so is the absurdist of absurd, the additional passenger surcharge. Rush Hour might still be in place, and I know that drivers are really going to try and use the drunk surcharge as often as possible.
What I am trying to figure out is why the additional passenger surcharge still applies. I mean this really must be one of the only cities in the country that uses a meter in addition to per-passenger rates. For one thing, the meter isn’t exactly cheap. It costs $3.00 to drop the flag (which is more expensive than NYC, if you were wondering) and then 25 cents per each 1/6 mile and then 25 cents per minute of being stuck in traffic. With adding surcharges, one person going one block can still expect to pay $5.00.
So why do we need the per-person fares on top of this?
Cabbies should be trying to get as many short distance rides as possible. Instead, they’re trying to get as many big groups as possible. This system is, quite simply, doomed to failure.
The average cab fare in New York is $6.00. The average cab fare in Washington is $11.83. Why? Perhaps it’s because D.C. is bigger geographically than New York. Or does D.C. have a higher cost of living than Manhattan? Or perhaps it’s because cabbies need to charge that much per fare in order to make a decent living. Why would that be? Especially with the K Street crowd, cabs are a highly sought after form of transportation in D.C. For one thing the Metro closes at midnight and unless you want to take the bus (and who knows where those run?), a cab is your only bet. So that leads me to believe that there is a drastic oversupply of taxis in the district, meaning that they have to charge higher fares to survive.
Assuming that average fares dropped to $6.00 a trip, Cabbies would need to pick up twice as many fares to earn the same amount of money, ceteris paribus. If there was a somewhat normal number of cabs per person in D.C., then making up the additional revenue would be extremely difficult. The demand for cab service, in my opinion, leans towards the inelastic side, and dropping rates by half will not cause ridership to double. However, according to a Progressive Review article (
LINK) that I wholeheartedly disagree with, D.C. has 1 cab for every 75 citizens. New York, on the other hand, has 1 cab for every 600—London and Paris have similar proportions.
Are D.C. Residents eight times as likely as likely as New Yorkers to take a cab places?
My solution, would then to increase barriers to entry to reduce the oversupply of taxis in the district. Perhaps that way I could get a cabbie who actually knows where the address I give him is, or that the car I’m in is younger than I am (more on that in a bit). New York has medallions, London has The Knowledge (
LINK), D.C. has a piece of paper that says sign here on it, and then you get your cab license—I just made that up but it sure feels that way.
Furthermore, district cabs fall way behind in other categories compared to other cities. For one thing, they’re really shitty cars. Not only that, but they’re old and falling apart. On a recently rainy evening, I was in a cab where water was literally coming in from the ceiling. And I’ve been in dozens of cabs where the suspension was completely shot, the seats were ripped, the windows didn’t work, or the car just looked thoroughly distressed. This is what I’m paying a premium for?
By both reducing the number of cabs on the street, and the overall cost of trips, D.C. cabbies could be making a whole lot more money. Besides that, with lower trip costs coupled with cleaner cabs and nicer drivers, the money made on tips could increase greatly. A solution like this would benefit both drivers and riders, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what we all want?
