The Meter Struggle

It's a showdown of epic proportions as Mayor Adrian Fenty is threatening to levy $1,000 fines on any DC cabs that don't shift to charging people via a meter, but with less than two weeks to go few drivers have installed meters. One friend of mine says he's seen a meter in a cab, but I haven't and nobody else I know seems to have seen one.

Comments

I live in Ohio, so I only use a taxi when traveling, and rarely at that.

But I have never been in a cab with out a meter. How do they charge you with out a meter? Do they tell you when you tell them the destination? or is it a big surprise when you get there?

Posted by Rob | April 19, 2008 9:47 PM

I've been in taxis in the Philippines without meters; (Without meters being used anyway.) The airport taxis in Manila run on a fixed fee to a destination system: You go to the taxi desk, tell them where you want to go from the airport, and they hand you a slip with the destination and fee, which you are to provide to the taxi driver.

But it's got to be a lot easier to run a fixed fee system when all the rides are starting at one fixed point.

Posted by Brett Bellmore | April 20, 2008 7:42 AM

Rob, the District charges cab fares by dividing the city up into zones. When you end your trip, you see how many zones you've passed through, and are charged based upon that. (If you stayed entirely within one zone, you pay the base fare; if you went into two zones, you pay the next highest fare; and so on.)

Funny story about zones versus meters: the evolution of the District's cab system is essentially a matter of "what's cheaper for Congressmen." Originally, DC had meters like everyone else, but Congress didn't like it, because they were paying the base fee even though they tended to take cabs a short distance -- unlike people taking long-distance cab rides, they couldn't amortize the flag drop fee over several miles, so on a per mile basis, they were paying more. So they mandated the zone system, and put everywhere they wanted to go within the same zone, so that they were usually paying less per mile than other passengers.

After Home Rule, the District kept the zones, but flattened out the fares associated with the zones, so that the difference between one zone and two, or even three or four, was quite small. As a result, staying within one zone, while still the cheapest ride overall, usually had the *highest* fee per mile of any trip. So Congress got fed up, and passed a law trying to mandate the abolition of their earlier mandate, which is what caused meters to kick in just now.

Posted by cminus | April 21, 2008 7:54 AM