It's Not Just About Meters

D.C. Taxicab Network Needs an Overhaul and Better Enforcement

Say "D.C. taxis" and a chorus of litanies erupts. Anyone who has ridden in one of our taxis has more than a little bit to say. In a 2004 New York Times Magazine article, "Washington: Some of My Favorite Things," Claire Messud writes about our city's great restaurants and increasingly chic urbanity but also about D.C. taxicabs: "The supremely illogical zone system, the disconcerting oddity of multiple customers with multiple destinations, crammed into a single cab; and the eccentricity of the drivers, whose knowledge of the city may be tenuous at best."

Restaurants, hotels and tourist destinations rely heavily on our taxi fleet as the front-line ambassadors for visitors to our city. It is imperative that the District revamp the taxi industry to maintain efficient, reliable and reasonable modes of transportation for visiting tourists and business travelers. But this is not just about visitors to our city; this is also of critical importance to all residents.

A recently released report by the D.C. Taxicab Commission studied 25 taxicabs in an analysis of the differences between using a time/distance meter and having un-metered zone fares (the current system). The Post cited this study in a July 28 Metro story when it referred to the oft-cited figures on meters vs. zones and who benefits or loses most (short trips are cheaper by meter; longer trips are cheaper by zone, according to the commission).

But these figures are not the whole story in this study, which at best presents a fuzzy picture of taxi use patterns in the city.

When the study says, "Although drivers received training . . . problems existed due to an overall lack of controls on the data collection," one has to wonder about the usefulness of this study in debating the pros and cons of the taxi rate system.

The meter system, and the regulatory and oversight structure that supports it, work in other major cities. There is no reason to believe it won't work here. Let's look to those cities instead of putting too many eggs in this study's basket.

Yet this debate is not just about meters. What is desperately needed is an overhaul of taxicab regulations, strong enforcement of those regulations and the creation of uniformity throughout the taxicab fleet. To focus solely on the meter vs. no-meter argument is to lose sight of improvements necessary to properly serve D.C. residents and visitors.

The Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington respects its fellow hospitality employees in the taxicab industry and strongly supports efforts to improve the taxicab system. We know it's broken; let's work together to fix it.

-- Lynne Breaux

Washington

The writer is president of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington.