Is Meters vs. Zones Debate Over?

GPS Device Is a Hit With Cab Users, Taxi Firm Says

In most cities, calculating the cost of a taxicab ride is a straightforward matter of looking at the meter. Taxis in the District cling to the often-indecipherable system of payment zones, with the price announced by the driver at the end.

Now, a little-noticed hybrid is being used in a growing number of D.C. taxicabs, one that may someday render moot the debate about meters versus zones by convincing passengers, perplexed by the city's unusual system, that their fares indeed are fair.

For several months, about 100 drivers with Yellow Cab, the District's largest independent cab company, have been using a device called a fare calculator. The electronic instrument, mounted on a cab's dashboard, operates like a meter but uses the boundaries of D.C. taxi zones and the Global Positioning System (GPS). The device lets riders know, in a way that worn-out zone maps posted on the backs of cab seats cannot, that they have traveled from, say, Zone 1A to Zone 2C. Unfortunately for some expense-account travelers, however, the device prints out electronic receipts. The passenger no longer is given a scrap of paper left tantalizingly blank to be filled out and submitted for expense reimbursement.

The GPS equipment has arrived at a contentious time in the area cab industry.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams has made it clear that he wants D.C. cabs to switch to meters, in line with every other major U.S. city, and a series of public hearings on the issue will be held this summer.

But many cabdrivers who oppose the change are promising a fight; they and other critics argue that under the zone system, fares remain constant, despite gridlock and other delays.

This month, the District completed its first comparative study of meters and zones. Meters, which calculate fares on the basis of distance traveled and time spent idling, were installed in about two dozen cabs, and fares for trips were calculated using both meters and the zone system. The results have not been made public.

Yellow Cab, which has 650 vehicles, is not taking sides on that issue, general manager Roy D. Spooner said. The company, on Bladensburg Road NE, had planned to update its operations, replacing its old-fashioned dispatch room -- where operators slide the scribbled cab requests over to a dispatcher -- with computers and GPS.

Last year, after watching Digital Dispatch Systems, a Vancouver company, demonstrate its fare calculator to the D.C. Taxicab Commission, Spooner and Yellow Cab owner Vaughn Williams decided to give the device a shot.

Spooner and Williams see the fare calculator as an alternative to the zones-versus-meters debate and hope to install the device in more cabs.

"If you listen, people aren't really saying they want meters," Spooner said. "What customers are saying is they want fair and consistent prices. We wanted the public to see this alternative. It's not threatening, and it's very accurate. You can't trick it."

Stanley W. Tapscott, a member of the taxi commission, has called the fare calculator "the wave of the future" and said he helped Digital Dispatch Systems develop the device for D.C. zones. He has been using one of the calculators in the black-and-orange Lincoln Town Car he drives for Capitol Cab.