examiNation DC: What do you think about the new D.C. taxi meter tariffs starting at $4?

For every Cabbie that cheats there are hundreds of hounest Cabbies. But what no one has realised is that the DC cab buisness is seasonal and liked by many Cab drivers who are parents for that reason. On off seasons the parents can be home with their kids. These parents have also bought homes in the district and surounding suburbs. The meter system as proposed will cut the income of the cabbies by about 50% with a very conservative estimate. There will be many foreclosures in the surrounding suburbs and in some areas of the district because of this, as the cab drivers are the main income earners of many households as by working 12 to 16 hours a day. I know a lot of people are happy to see the Cabbies punished for one reason or another, I would like to tell them to look around their neighborhood and see if there is a D.C. Cab parked around and if there is to expect as many forclosures as there are cabs.

The shallow intent of the staff of the local and national news media have refused to ever responsibly research and truly report on the corrupt origin of the unique DC taxicab zone system because they rely on cabs. They only read and address what they are told to read and address. To hell with exposing how the zone boundaries have been insulting the predominant Afro-American residents. The initial governmental and court rulings that, "the zone system is only a means to exploit the labor of the driver" and that, "the zone system provides discriminative service were made when only "white" people were driving and riding cabs in overtly racist America of 1931! The failure of every Chair and Council member to have ever responsibly researched and addressed the Congressional corruption of the DC taxicab system merely provides modern examples of House and Senate servants.

I've travelled frequently in D.C. (and used to drive a cab in San Francisco). The zone system does encourage drivers to take the quickest route by giving them a flat rate, but for those unfamiliar with the city, the zones are impossible to understand, so many, if not most, passengers have no idea how many zones they've gone through. It's a system that's ripe for ripping people off. The metered fare does not really give cabbies an incentive to take the long, slow route, as some people think. Because the biggest single chunk of the fare comes with the pickup, not with distance traveled, cabbies still have an incentive to get someone to their destination quickly so they can get a new customer in their cab. That, and very long distance fares (airport to home in the country) are the moneymakers. The new system will benefit visitors to D.C. more than locals who understand the zones. If it's harder on cabbies (remember I was one), I say too bad. Help the consumer, not the dri

Why has the news media and national and local politrickcians refused to enlighten DC residents, taxicab drivers and tourists of the Congressional corruption of the DC taxicab zone system? For 75 years the DC community has not heard a word from local politicians or any aspect of the local news media in respect to the fact that the unique DC taxicab zone system had been initially denied on 11/06/31 when the DC Public Utilities Commission listed 20 reasons to deny,"any version of the zone system to replace the use of meters in DC taxicabs." Judge Adkins completely upheld the PUC decision. (PUR 1932C pg.1) The Appeals Court upheld Judge Adkins.(1932) F2d 1005 Congressional trick #1 that has forced the use of the zone system was weakly referred to only by one editorial of the Washington Post entitled, "The Taxicab Rider" (11/13/71) "Karl Rudder's Blog" on google.com exposes the Congressional means of corruption of DC taxicab industry. Do you need permission to read it?

Most people don't understand the DC taxicab industry. In fact the taxicab comm doesn't really understand the industry. If they did it wouldn't have gone basically unregulated for 70 years. Whether the starting fare is $4 or $2 doesn't matter, it's all relative. The Mayor wants a $4 starting fare which is higher that in a city like NY but the mileage fare that the Mayor is proposing is lower than NY. Furthermore, DC is one of the most educated cities in the country with one of the highest income levels and all this discussion is taking plave over $1.50. With the zone system cab drivers have the right to request the fare up front. I doubt they will be able to do this with a meter. End result more cab robberies. Ever wonder why we don't have the big barriers separating the passenger and the driver, like NY. I have driven a cab for the past 5 years and you get a sense of who to ask to pay up front. 75% of the time they don't have the money.

I don't understand why the base/starting fare is $4. That is high I don't know why. Other popular cities don't have their fares start that high. It just seems ridiculous.

How much for a one-way cab to Afghanistan via Pakistan and making a quickstop in India to refuel in the new fare system?

My cab driver one time was also a loan officer selling those risky loans to other cabbies (the liar loans)and unsuspecting home buyers...and he was also a REALTOR who had a line holding from someone who wanted to buy a house...being both an illegal act anyways, but that did not stop him from overcharging me for my ride...when I caught him, he said: OH sorry, I was doing loan my head, we charge points, I mistake charge you....geez

If we are to equate our cab system to the rest of the country, than we need to emulate them as well, which means, among other things, not having our cabbies stick an earphone in their ears and have phone conversations in front of strangers in the back seat, especially in a foreign language; we should also have a common background of music, like Welcome to DC etc etc by prominent people in town.

bellismo~ we now give those cabbies one more reason to take the most busiest streets, traffic signals (we all know what those are) because the new system incentivizes that.

I dont want to keep guessing every second...and I dont want to keep my eye on the meter. For people who are barely scraping by, these are big issues when they are living paychek to paychek. You probably won't understand because you have never lived in a developing climate, but you have lived in a developed one.

Total joke. $3 is more reasonable. I am waiting to see what they do with extra passenger and luggage charges.

Finally a way to control the widespread cheating by cabbies in DC. My friend came from Union Station to Adams Morgan and was charged $23.00 for what should have been an $8.80 fare. In this case I caught it and gave the cabbie an option: The ride was free or we would file a complaint with the Taxi Commission. He was smart and dropped his fare from $23 to $0 in about 4 seconds. It's about time that DC joins every other major city in America. Welcome to the 21st Century.