Yesterday, District cab drivers participated in a 12-hour work stoppage to protest D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams’ proposed reorganization of the way taxicabs are regulated. Perhaps the plan’s most controversial suggestion is the provision calling for cab companies to contribute toward raising $350,000 to equip a small number of cabs with fare meters as a means to base a future decision on transitioning away from the current zone-based system. Given how many taxicab drivers use the system to gouge those unfamiliar with its boundaries and rules – and how the current system is a detriment to permanent D.C. residents – Mayor Williams should be commended for his courage in confronting taxicab drivers in this manner.
Established during the Great Depression era, the taxicab zone system is vastly outdated. While providing cheap transportation across a significant area of downtown, the zone-based system takes advantage of those either unfamiliar with the system, or those living on the edge of zone demarcations. Those unfamiliar with the zone system lack a mechanism by which they can hold cab drivers accountable for assessing the appropriate fare. A meter showing the precise fair – with obligatory calculations built in for idling time and distance considerations – would ensure the minority of drivers who prey on tourists would be unable to do so. The second group negatively affected by the zone system is residents living on zone peripheries. The difference in the ground distance between 23rd and 21st streets is negligible; the difference in price of a fair originating in either of these two locations is relatively substantial. A metered system would benefit such customers by instituting a pay-as-you-go system. Such a system makes much more logical sense than an arbitrary splitting of the District into zones.
The current method in which taxicab fares are assessed is outmoded and in need of substantial reform. The transition from a zone-based system to a metered system will ensure residents and tourists are not being overcharged and taken advantage of by individual drivers. While under certain circumstances fares might increase for individual trips that once cost the minimum, residents, as well as taxi drivers, will ultimately benefit from a fair and transparent system in the future.
