Tyranny of the Zoned Taxicab System .:. grubbykid.com

Tyranny of the Zoned Taxicab System

Urban living dictates that many simple necessities enjoyed in sub-urban and rural areas are controlled by large forces outside (or at best tangentially) your sphere of power. One such item is transportation; in order to navigate New York it is often required to interact with public transportation, tightly regulated taxicabs, somewhat-less regulated car services, personal transportation (car, motorcycle, bicycle) or walking.

Needless to say how you get places is always a prime topic of conversation in the region and with visitors. What is also a consummate conversation is comparing the NYC region's transportation mega structure with other city's (often meager) infrastructure. With that being said, consummate District-er Yglesias brings to attention the, seemingly minor, proposal that the new DC mayor will revise the taxi cab maps so that it is both:

Oriented due North
The correct fares will be listed

For those who have never had the pleasure to ride in a DC cab, there is no meter. The city is zoned so that every time you cross a zone you pay more money along with surcharges for extra passengers. Which is interesting because the Metro system is zoned as well (although I can't find a fare zone map the price per trip is between $).

To someone used to meters, there is only one response: zones are the most ridiculous way to regulate the taxicab market. I would rather have a meter any day versus guessing if I crossed that magic line on a map which (apparently) isn't even presented in the correct orientation or with the correct fares.

To be fair, my District compatriots say this is a superior system, which only needs a few rides to become accustomed to. But I don't buy it, principally due to the near-gerrymandered zone system. The only time NYC went to zones was during the 2005 transit strike, where the zones themselves were huge, and mostly drawn along major obstacles and political boundaries such as 59th Street in Manhattan, the East River, the Brooklyn-Queens border, etc. What made this plan tenable was the lack of transportation, minimum rider per car requirements and the simple geography. Perhaps since I don't live in the District, I'm not familiar enough with the boundaries, but it seems that the zone boundaries are somewhat capricious.

So, dear reader of this site, what do you think of the relative merits/demerits of a zoned system?

Comments

Arno says:

Not only have I found the taxi "zone" system when applied to DC THE most confusing and convulted cab experience ever but, the drivers there are out of control. For instance, one time two friends and I were in a cab, which cost an extra 4 bucks by they way, not only did we run traffic lights (no biggie) but we went up a one way street, the wrong way!! With oncoming traffic! And, the driver didn't slow down.....he went faster. Then this guy went barreling into a blocked intersection, blocked with traffic that is, right in front of a car filled with members of DC's finest. It was lovely! Then after the cop threatened to throw him in jail for the multiple violations that he had just witnessed he pulled his car forward in an attempt to park (or turn around) and further question the driver who then sped off, passengers in tow! Dropped us several blocks from where we were actually going, charged us less and sped off into the night.
IT
WAS
AWESOME

I love the zone system.

Posted by: Arno at February 8, 2007 10:08 AM #

niklas says:

The ride Arno describes does rank among my top 3 cab rides of all time. That aside, the zone system is pretty pathetic for us full-time swamp dwellers. By orienting the map north / south will make arguments with cabbies less frequent, but paying $10 to get approximately 15 blocks uptown of my office is just sad.

To me, the zone system is a "lite" version of a private car service. In most instances you can sit down in a cab and already know the exact amount you'll be forking over when you get to the destination.

But, then again, it's not so "private". DC Law allows a cabbie to pull over and offer to take other fares heading in the same general direction as where he's already heading. To answer the obvious follow-up question, yes, he charges a full fare to both of the groups in the car. There are some nights that you just want to get home and all of a sudden the cab pulls over and, with the window down, the cabbie is asking which way a group is heading, then asking you to scoot over.

There was word of a pilot program for metering cabs in the district (I believe it launched sometime in early 2006). No follow up in the news leads me to believe it fizzled with the drivers who likely lost a good chunk of money for a large percentage of their fares.

The zoned metro system and the fares associated are a whole other problem. Read more here , here, and a related "ragegasm" here.