My Austin cab ride experience was nothing like Rick Hertzberg's and exactly like Ezra Klein's (presumably because we were in the same cab) and I, too, would like to know why Austin taxi meters charge you per 1/11th of a mile when expressing the price in terms of 1/10th of a mile suggests itself as an obvious alternative.
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Just 0.09090909 Miles to Go
22 Jul 2008 09:40 am
Comments (22)
... but this one goes to 1/11th!
Maybe for the same reason that fast food burgers are sold for 99 cents instead of a more obvious dollar, and gas stations go even further to charge you an extra 9/10's of a cent per gallon. If taxis charge per 1/11th of a mile then you do the calculation in your head for what it would cost you if they charged 1/10th of a mile, and then you end up spending 10% more than you intended.
Maybe they're big fans of Spinal Tap down there...
Damn. Beat me to it.
My guess is that the rate used to be 1/10th of a mile and then they got a fare increase.
Is it mandated by city policy? As you know, cabs are heavily regulated by the cities they in which they operate. If so, then it might not be an economic question at all. Maybe it was a compromise between charging a unit price for every 1/12th of a mile and 1/10th of mile--who knows?
Measuring the fare in 1/10s rather than 1/11s would require either:
(1) Decreasing fares (unlikely to endear you to cabbies), or
(2) A price in fractional cents.
From now until about 2050, whenever the number 11 is used where a decimal figure seems more apt, some old codger (usually me) will be making that joke. Spinal Tap is just that awesome.
Austin cabs are a rip-off. Period.
It's to honor St. Christopher.
They're charging you for every 500 feet of travel (since there are ~10.5 units of 500 feet in a mile), which makes nice round units for the machine to measure.
max
['I'm pretty sure that's a regulatory deal.']
Obviously, it's because 1/11th of a mile is 160 yards, whereas 1/10th of a mil is 176 yards. What could be simpler?
Yes, it certainly seems to be due to fare increases. A little googling finds references to increments of 1/8 of a mile previously.
I agree with the "fare increase" meme. I remember NYC taxi fares rising by changing the distance per dollar rather than the dollars per distance, probably because that makes for a less obvious hike. Another example of the shrinking nickel candy bar.
At least you were able to get a cab in Austin. Try being on hold for 10 minutes and then waiting 40 minutes for it to arrive just because you are located "too far away" or on the "darkee side of town".
Public transpo here indeed blows.
And what, exactly, is your problem with base-11 arithmetic?
You should have taken the bus. They have a stop near the Hilton. It's nearly as fast as a cab and only costs 50 cents.
Hertzberg had a touchscreen-controlled multimedia cab and he chose to listen to James Taylor? Yuck.
I used to work for taxicab companies and BarryG pretty much has it right. Changing the distance measures from 1/8 of a mile to 1/11 of a mile or whatever seems more amenable that changing the actual cost of the same distance traveled. It's all about perception.
Sort of like when they changed the size of a half-gallon ice cream container down to a quart and a half but kept the price the same?
Sort of like when they changed the size of a half-gallon ice cream container down to a quart and a half but kept the price the same?
You should have taken the bus. They have a stop near the Hilton. It's nearly as fast as a cab and only costs 50 cents.
Well, a buck. (Express) Bus 100 leaves no more than every hour and takes about 20 min to get downtown.
Some bus systems don't allow luggage. But the Austin system apparently allows you to have a a small roll-on which is all you probably had with you. (a picture of a person with a rollon suitcase is present sometimes when loading their homepage; not there on preview.)
So much for supporting public transit.
Comments closed August 05, 2008.
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Maybe they're big fans of Spinal Tap down there...
Posted by vivisfugue | July 22, 2008 9:49 AM