Thank you, Mr. Cab Driver, for making me stink like pot. What a wonderous aroma to be swirling around me as I sit here at *my desk * at my job. Mmmmm, sour pot smell. Marrrrrrrvelous.
You fucking fuck.
Mr. Cab Driver only thinks about himself.
*To Whom It May Concern (Bosses Included):
I only smell like pot because the odor was transferred from my cab ride. Really.*
Dude, what cab? We carpooled today, like always. You okay? Why were you so quiet today, and why did you ride in the backseat?
And thank you Mr. D.C. cab driver for continuing to oppose tooth and nail the placing of meters in cabs here, keeping your zone based system.
According to your representative today, its not you overcharging, it is private livery cars pretending to be DC cabs who are ripping people off. Well, wouldn’t you want some kind of system that prevented this happening? Like meters maybe?
Why, if the system is so fair and well implemented as it is, did I get charged everywhere from $6.50 to $18 for exactly the same cab ride from Georgetown to Rosslyn? And that’s not including the ass who told me it was $25, only to have me laugh in his face. Oh, and also the clown who got a ticket on the ride for going through a red light and demanded I paid the ticket for him.
I haven’t smoked the stuff since in 13 years, but I still love the smell. Mmmmm.
Even after living on south campus at Ohio State U, I still don’t recognize the smell unless someone tells me what it is.
Maybe I’m being paranoid (heh), but my one boss The Recovering Geek seemed aware that something about me was… off… The other, The Recovering Pothead, seemed to be aware that something about me was… off… and he was a bit… surprised?
Man, I’m craving Cheetos.
I was under the impression that one of the biggest forces behind keeping the zone system is the politicians, who make most of their trips within rather than between zones. Is this true, or just an urban legend?
Huh? They don’t call it skunkweed for nothing.
Hehehe. A mate of mine took a cab home late a while ago. The driver was so stoned that when asked for a receipt, he just wrote the amount on a Post-It ™.
It looked reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy convincing attached to his expense report.
I have not heard that, but it could be true. As far as I know, cab control is one of the things the nice federal government allow the city to do on its own without hand holding…
Pot smell? Never happened to me. (Not from a cab driver, anyway.) But it sucks to take a cab when taking groceries home, and to have all that food taste like cheap cologne.
[QUOTE=villa]
And thank you Mr. D.C. cab driver for continuing to oppose tooth and nail the placing of meters in cabs here, keeping your zone based system.
According to your representative today, its not you overcharging, it is private livery cars pretending to be DC cabs who are ripping people off. Well, wouldn’t you want some kind of system that prevented this happening? Like meters maybe?
Why, if the system is so fair and well implemented as it is, did I get charged everywhere from $6.50 to $18 for exactly the same cab ride from Georgetown to Rosslyn? And that’s not including the ass who told me it was $25, only to have me laugh in his face. Oh, and also the clown who got a ticket on the ride for going through a red light and demanded I paid the ticket for him.[/QUOTE
The system is probably bad for locals but good for tourists- it keep the drivers from taking you 50 blocks out of the way and charging you for the pleasure. But you should be able to see the zones and know the cost before you get in, right?
The system is a disaster for tourists and only potentially good for locals. Though there is a map of the zones, the only way of really knowing how much a fare costs is to have travelled it before. There is a map of the zones in the back of the cab, if you are lucky, but it is not that easy to decipher for people who don’t know the city. And if you have the temerity to take a cab from the district to either VA or MD, you are totally off the zones - the cabbie is meant to charge you based on distance and some chart he keeps up front in the cab. Hence my somewhat varying charges from 30th & M in Georgetown to Rosslyn.
It’s a crazy system. There are some cabs with meters that are GPS linked into the zone system, which is fine - you actually see the meter drop down when they leave a zone for a few blocks then re-enter it later. But overall, there is absolutely no real transparency in the system, especially if you don’t know DC. As I mentioned, once you get outside of the district, you are just asking to have your pockets picked.
Per mile isn’t all that great also. I have had Taxi drivers in SF “take a shortcut” which added $3-4 on to the tab.
Yes - it isn’t perfect. But given that DC cabs tend to be busy, and most cabbies I have spoken to tend to say they make more from multiple short trips than fewer long ones, provided the multiple fares are available, there is some protection if you have a meter running that shows you what the fare is meant to be. If they take you out of the way, the fare goes up, but it takes them longer. With a mystical zone system, they can drive you the quickest route and still request whatever sum pops into their head. It’s only if you call them on it that they will back down and admitt to having miscalculated the zones.
Obviously this isn’t true of all DC cabbies, and I would never try to suggest that. It has just happened to me often enough (as well as the classic refusal to take me to various places, which is why I now only tell them where I am going once in the cab) that I just want there to be some kind of transparency to the whole system.
Not all weed is skunkweed.
I’m glad you’re not sitting near me. I’m allergic to pot smoke, so much so that I don’t even know what it smells like. My nose closes up and starts running like a faucet before I can register the smell.
If you’re going to Rosslyn, the zone system doesn’t apply as it is, as Rosslyn is in Virginia, and all DC cabs going to Virginia or Maryland are supposed to charge by mileage. Ask for him to check the odometer and record the number when you get in the cab, and then make sure he does so. Then, at the end of the trip. if you think he’s overcharging you, ask to see the cab’s rate chart, which should have a mileage table on the back.
If you still think he’s overcharging you, get a receipt that states both your pickup point and your destination, and take his name, badge, and vehicle tag number, and let him know you’re going to file a complaint with the DC Taxicab commission.