Taxi Ripoff!
There’s nothing that drives me crazier than sitting in a cab ,motionless in traffic watching the meter tick away my money. That’s why I walk, take the subway or rollerblade everywhere ,except on late on a stormy night. Apparently the new increase works out to about 70% in a typical ride. Yesterday one ride in traffic , according to NYSD, cost $13, as opposed to $7.70 last week. Time for the able bodied to invest in new skates,bikes and Metrocards. Unfortunately older and disabled people and people with small children may not have this option.
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This taxi fare increase is a real spit in the face of people who rely on taxis to get them places when they really need better access than public mass transit.
My boyfriend and I often rely on them to get home when we’re out late because we so often go out downtown in the West or East VIllage and live at the very top of the island. A trip that cost $25 is now going to run us close to $40.
We’ll pass, thank you.
Actually this price increase is not that drastic. Remember you can tell the cab driver what route to take. I for one know that 9th ave is good downtown and 10th going uptown—less stop and go traffic ergo idle fair increase will not be taken into account. Any one know of good routes on the east side??
East side downtown is a nightmare; it’s the FDR or nothing
Duly noted! My $12 cab ride ended up costing me $16 today. So much for the TLC’s estimation that the increase will cost passengers $1 more per ride. I felt bad tipping the driver less, but this rate hike is a huge rip off.
92nd and 2nd to St Mark’s and 2nd last Friday night — heavy rain, moderately heavy traffic. A 13 dollar cab ride was now 22. If I hadn’t been drunk, I would’ve taken the 6 train.
Frankly, I have no problem with it. I don’t make a lot of money, but I sure have a better job than the cab driver does. A lot of these guys have families, many send money to families abroad, and so much goes to the cab owners that the drivers’ take is pretty spare. If I’m gonna take a cab, it’s gonna cost me. As long as it’s less than the car payments, insurance and parking I used to pay when I had a car, here; I think I’m ahead….
This is ridiculous! It’s just putting MORE money in the hands of these millionaire cab drivers at our expense.
Actually, a lot more college kids are taking jobs as taxi drivers part time these days. So no, I think the taxi rate hike is a ripoff. Sure some of these guys have families, but it is a taxi, and forgive me if I don’t want to pay 20 bucks for something that used to cost 12.
really? college kids and millionaires are driving your cabs? the cabs i take are still driven by the immigrants who were driving them last week.
seriously, here in the real world, taxi drivers shouldn’t be making 6 figures, but i have no problem with them netting $10 or $12 an hour for a job that has awful hours and is less safe than most.
i think charging more for fares to cover that salary and to pay for increased gas makes sense. the only way to do it is to charge a cab fare that will cover those costs or to tax everybody in the city a little more (which seems like a bad idea, since not everybody uses cabs the same amount and plenty of people who use cabs don’t live in the city).
maybe the increase to the sitting in traffic charge isn’t the best way to increase the fare. i’m sure there are other ways it could have been done. for example, i for one would like to charge an extra premium on people who have been out drinking $10 coctails in the village and then complain about the extra 40 cents a minute to drive them home.
Actually, they could help themselves on the gas expense by converting to hybrids. I talked to one driver who had a new hybrid who said he’d cut his gas costs by 50% a day. Instead they drive those crap American cars that are incredibly uncomfortable and get terrible mileage.
The big question is how much the drivers actually end up with. The far majority of these guys rent their taxis from larger companies. While they may be collecting more from passengers if the cab and medallion owners increase the rate to rent the car for the day then the drivers may not end up with any more money in their pockets.
Things will work out so that the drivers make as little as possible but still stay around. So long as there is someone else willing to work for a lower rate the drivers won’t walk away with any more money.
The only guys that win are the ones that own the medallions.
I also am amazed at how the TLC simply had no clue when they “estimated” that the cost per ride would only average about a dollar. I have a lot of heavy equipment to carry for my job and I am literally unable to carry it up and down the subway steps. I don’t have a choice but to take a cab. I live on Third Avenue and 12th Street and it cost me $13 to get to City Hall today and the same to get back. $26 a day up from $17 or $18? It’s really insane. How about charging a few extra dollars during peak times like they were before or during holiday seasons. The worst part is that EVERY single cabbie I talk to about it says the same thing, that the second the fares increased all the leaseholders increased their fees, which is is part in response to fuel costs and part in response to the TLC increasing costs again. In the end the cab drivers themselves are not making a dime more than they were. If they were, and this was helping them, maybe I wouldn’t be so steamed. But to think of my money going to the greedy leaseholders and the bureaucratic nightmare that is the TLC just makes me so mad. In addition, they are getting less of a tip per ride because people can’t afford to be as generous when the fare is so high every day, every trip. In the end, I’m stuck, and the totalitarianism that has become Mike’s New York City where anything seems to go but what’s best for those of us who live here, has won again.