What villa said. And I’m hardly an ‘unwittting tourist,’ I’ve spent over three decades of my life within a half-hour of the D.C. beltway.
Like villa, I don’t want to have to “do homework” for taking a cab ride, to make sure I’m well-prepped for the argument at the end of it that would be necessary to be charged only the legal fare. I don’t want to have that argument in the first goddamn place. If an argument is what it’s gonna take to pay the zone-map fare, I’d rather get from Point A to Point B by just about any other way, or give up and pay the inevitable overcharge.
Now if you could get a meter that the cabbie or passenger could input the pickup point and destination into, and have the zone-based fare appear, I could go along with that. My problem isn’t with the zone-based fare structure itself, but the fact that the passenger effectively has to be the one enforcing it.
That’s just not the role I want to play. If I had that problem with any other retailer or service provider, I’d simply stop patronizing that company. And that’s why I don’t take cabs in D.C. more than once in a blue moon.
The only people who benefitted from the zone system were cabbies and people who lived/worked in D.C Everyone else gets screwed by it. Meters are simpler. No sense making the whole thing more complicated than it needs to be.
Two reasons: Senator Levin, a former cab driver, put a provision in a bill last year that the DC mayor had to decide by some date whether to keep the zones or go to meters, otherwise DC had to go metered. So unlike in the past, when mayors would duck the issue, Fenty had to make a decision.
Second, the zone method is fucking stupid and indefensible.
I can’t speak to what the zone rates are now, as I left DC in 1992. I was paying something like half that price back then, from about 17th and Columbia Rd down to the Mall.
The tourists are there to be screwed. That’s what tourism is all about. Aside from cabs though, DC tourists get about the best dealing the world if they are museum goers and monument visitors. How many other places can you get into so many high-quality museums for free? Besides, they can take the Metro and the Tourmobile.
And that’s if you’re by yourself. If you’re in a group of 3 people, you can add another $3 to your zone fare, whereas (afaik) most metered cab companies don’t charge extra for groups.
Oh tell me about it! One of my goals is to take a week and a couple of friends and spend a vacation going to all of the Smithsonian museums. And the zoo. Maybe wend my way to the other side of the Mall as well (I’ve only been to the Capitol side).
I believe RedTop adds a dollar onto the meter per extra person you have in the cab. Still less than the $1.50 in DC.
Oh, and that reminds me of my ultimate rant against thieving DC cab drivers. If you go to multiple destinations, each stop is charged the full fare from point of origin. And if you have them driving you, they can stop and pick up someone else provided it does not take you more than a certain number of blocks out of your way.
So, coming back from Zoo Bar to NoVa, I am getting out in Rosslyn, friend and his wife are going to Ballston. Cabbie makes out like a bandit, already massively over-inflating the fare. I can see that the calculation should restart when he makes the first stop, so the flat rate amount would count twice; but to charge a group like that is ridiculous.
Well those are the rates now. And this thread is the first place I have come across current DC/area residents defending the zone system. I always assumed from experience it was universally unpopular (well not among cabbies…).
Couldn’t you have taken the Metro from Adam’s Morgan to the Mall? And if you sound in any way like a tourist, the cabbie will try to screw you too. Other than that - I agree at how good a deal DC can be, especially if you don’t have to pay for accomodation and have kids. It is a lot easier to take an 8 year old to a free museum knowing you can leave when it gets too much, rather than feeling you have to stay because you shelled out $50 for the privilege.
Back in those days I would have to walk basically around the zoo over to Connecticut Ave and get the metro at Woodley Park. Not all that far, really, maybe 10-15 minutes hike, but a long way in bad weather or if you’re already running late. I think since then a Green Line stop has opened nearer by.
Reviving old thread – Since this was so contentious when it happened, I’m curious about how people feel now. I, for one, don’t miss the zone system at all. Basic services shouldn’t require you to play games with the service provider. And I’m happy not to have to look at that incomprehensible map that was always fixed at an angle that made it uncomfortable to read anyway.
Cabbies are still pissed off at no longer having the zone system, which is proof positive that meters are a massive improvement for consumers.
There is talk of having a medallion system for cabbies, which would basically amount to putting a cap on the number of taxis that can serve DC. The illustrious Crackhead for Life is a supporter. Needless to say, it is a terrible idea.
Actually, his support for the proposal seems to be based on – hold on to your hat – this vague racist view of there being too many foreign cab drivers.
I used to live in DC. The zone system was stupid. It allowed cab drivers to rip off tourists (I guess I’m one of those strange people who doesn’t think a visitor deserves to be fleeced just because he’s from out of town) and it allowed dedicated people to rip off cab drivers. Meters are simpler and provide more uniformity to cab costs. Meters also help prevent unlicensed taxis from operating. That’s why almost every other city requires cabs to use meters. Most people I know who live in DC prefer the change.
Speaking as someone who just moved to DC a year ago (and is moving away in a few months), I am glad cabs are metered. Having to learn zones would have been a pain. It’s not just tourists that benefit; it’s also new arrivals, which in DC is a lot of people.
I see no benefit to consumers from a medallion system. The only people who would benefit would be medallion holders, as controllers of an artificially scarce resource.
While we are at it can we require that cabbies speak English? God I hate being in an unfamiliar town and having a cabbie not understand me. I had a cabbie take me 50 blocks away from where I was going: not because he was trying to cheat me, but just because he didn’t understand English. Then I almost got in a fight with him when I didn’t tip him when we finally got to where I was going.
We live in a difficult world. People do what they can to get by. It’s much harder to be a cabbie who doesn’t speak the local language well than it is to be his or her customer. If there was some kind of language test, there would be plenty of people prevented from earning money as cabbies and there would also be fewer cabbies, resulting in a supply shortage. That would harm both aspiring cabbies and consumers.
Aside from cabs though, DC tourists get about the best dealing the world if they are museum goers and monument visitors. How many other places can you get into so many high-quality museums for free? Besides, they can take the Metro and the Tourmobile.