I agree. Nobody works harder to rip people off than DC cabbies. It isn’t easy to drive drunk, refuse fares to the wrong parts of town, or fail to keep their cars in safe operating condition, but damn it, they get the job done.
Having taken cabs dozens of times over the last 17 years, I’ll have to say that you’re describing a distinct minority of cabbies. It’s blatantly unfair defamation to tar them all with that brush.
Most cabs I’ve taken in DC have been pretty good. Of course I generally caught the cab in the Virginia suburbs, so that is a little different.
But not by much.
Yeah, it’s a minority. But there are different kind of minorities: there’s the kind of minority that’s like, “the number of Americans who like to dress up like furry animals and go to conventions is just a minority,” and then there’s the minority like, “the number of young men who drink too much and like to start fights at English soccer games is just a minority.”
Is it fairly standard that cabbies not working as independent drivers with a cab or two lease cabs from a cab company and work as independent contractors or is it different in the DC area? If so, it would at least benefit the drivers, not having to force wages down because every Tom, Dick, and Harry can go buy a cab and become a driver, thus driving down fares.
Eighty hours a week are the ones who work short hours. And in their oodles of spare time, they’re trying to learn English - typically without money, education, or resources to learn the language other than trying to pick it up wherever they can.
I don’t really see the problem with installing fucking meters. I mean, if people were choosing cabs that much over motel rooms, the cabbies at least should be compensated for having to scotchguard all the back seats.
By a huge amount. NoVa cabs are head and shoulders superior to DC ones.
Oh, great. They’re charging people to fuck in the back seat now?
. . . resulting in increased wages for cabbies, resulting in about the same number of cabbies as before. Consumers would essentially be paying more to get more, which would be a perfectly fine situation if that’s what consumers wanted.
Still way cheaper than a hotel room!
But fucking in the front passenger seat is still free. Is this a great country, or what?
And at $100K per medallion, there will be scant few of them. I wonder how many of our cabbies have that kind of cash (or credit to borrow) to sink into a business.
If you get the driver to go over really bumpy streets, you can save half the effort.