Taxi meter injunction denied! Get installin’, cabbies… —Mike DeBonis

Allow me to clarify my earlier bit of reporting: When Mayor Adrian M. Fenty says there’s no deadline extension for cab drivers to install meters, well, there’s actually a deadline extension.

The mayor’s office handed out a press release this morning titled “District to Enforce May 1 Deadline for Taxi Meter System Conversion.” The release goes on to detail how that simply isn’t true. Yes, taximeters will be required come May 1, but there will be no meaningful enforcement until June 1. Warning tickets “displaying a $1,000 fine” will be issued during the month of May, but they don’t have to be paid.

“We intend to uphold the May deadline,” Fenty said this morning, before explaining how intention doesn’t exactly match reality: “Like anything else in our law, they will get a warning.”

So why not just push the deadline back to June 1 and get rid of this strange non-deadline deadline?

“There’s always some staggered implementation,” Fenty says.

Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles did say that if a driver is caught during May with an installed meter that he or she is not using, then in fact, that driver would be “susceptible to a fine.”

Just who will enforce the meter law? Taxi inspectors will be doing the bulk of the job, along with city police who will be doing “spot checks” (most likely, Nickles says, while taxis are parked at stands). Passengers can also narc on nonmetered cabs by phoning in the driver’s name, company, and license number to 202-645-6018 or e-mailing that info to dctc@dc.gov.

UPDATE, 12:15 P.M.: Sophistical press release is after the jump.

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Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is announcing right now that his administration will not give D.C. cab drivers an extension for their May 1 deadline to place meters in their taxis. The matter is in the news lately, thanks to a lawsuit by the drivers that challenges the administration’s ability to ram through this regulation.

A D.C. Superior Court judge yesterday ruled against the cabbies, leaving them little more than a week to get their meters installed. The situation prompted some talk about pushing the deadline back, but Fenty this morning closed the door on such leniency.

—reporting by Mike DeBonis

UPDATE, 12 P.M.: Turns out that though Fenty says there’s no extension, there actually is an extension. Read more.

The Post reported today that a D.C. Superior Court judge delayed the switch from zones to meters for the thousands of District cabs: “The new deadline, replacing the April 6 starting date, came about after Judge Henry F. Greene ruled that the D.C. government had published different timetables for public comment on the final regulations for the new meter system. A city official blamed it on a typographical error.”

Cabbies see this as one small victory on their road to the larger victory of keeping the zone pay scheme. Good news for the cab drivers means that every fare no matter how far will still cost around $12 (with tip). It always seems like my fare is always the same no matter where I go. What I don’t get is if the drivers were so wedded to zone pay, why do they routinely seem to not be able to read the zones correctly.

Another thing I don’t get: Why couldn’t District lawyers come up with a better argument than a “typographical error?”

This morning, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced to reporters crammed into the D.C. Taxi Commission’s Anacostia offices a number of changes made to the taxi-meter regulations. In short, if you’re not a cab driver, you’re going to like what’s going to happen:

• The flag drop is being reduced from the proposed $4 to $3.
• There will be no rush-hour surcharge.
• There will be no additional-passenger surcharge.
• Fares will not double during “snow emergencies.”
• No fare between points in the District can exceed $18.90, plus surcharges.

Fenty read off the results of the input received during the 60-day comment period after the initial regs were announced back in October. The District received about 2,100 comments total. About 77 percent of those supported the switch to meters. Of those who chose to comment on “zone meters,” 66 percent were against them. Most strikingly, of those who commented on the base rate, the passenger surcharge, and the rush hour surcharge, virtually 100 percent opposed the original regulations.

Can’t say the Fenty folks aren’t listening to the voice of the people on this one.

There’s one definite rider-unfriendly provision that remains in effect: The fuel surcharge. That apparently wasn’t figured in to the new rates.

The meters are still scheduled to go into service April 6. It’s the responsibility of cab owners to purchase their meters by that day. “Any cab that does not have a meter by that specified date will not be a taxicab in the District of Columbia,” said Leon Swain, chair of the Taxicab Commission.

A number of drivers and cab owners were also present, and asked pointed, if largely unintelligible questions of the mayor. Fenty brushed off concerns about a possible strike, which has been threatened for early February.

“I’m sure this is going to meet the needs of drivers and the needs of the riding public,” Swain Fenty said.

This afternoon, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced the details for the taxi meter transition. Anyone expecting major savings over zone rates might be in for a bit of a surprise: Under the proposal, the flag drop’s going to be $4, well above NYC’s $2.50. The mileage rate, however, is $.25 for one-sixth of a mile (NY is $.40 per one-fifth), in a nod to what was the essential balance of the zone system: short trips makes less economic sense than long trips.

Press release after jump.

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Just in case you were curious about the rhetoric emanating from certain elements of the taxi-driving community, here’s a flyer circulated by the Taxicab Industry Group, one of several such groups out there. (Click to zoom.)

I was a big fan of switching over to a metered system for D.C. cabs until recently, when I read about the effect meters would have on fares for Washington residents east of the river. I may grumble over paying $10 to travel a few blocks, but I don’t want my bargain to come in exchange for busting the wallet of a dog-tired swing-shift worker from Southeast. From what I can tell, most cabbies are opposed to any kind of meters because it would make it easier to track their income. Sorry, dudes.

It seemed like a great big depressing impasse until a saint of a cabbie picked me up at 4 a.m. this Sunday morning. First of all, the guy let me in without asking my destination. He also swung back around to scoop up a friend who would have been in for a dismal wait. We all got to talking about the great fare debate and he said the solution is simple: a zone meter. Sure, it won’t cut us poor journalists a break, but it will offer a measure of transparency. Which is really all I want. No more taking advantage of the constant influx of newbies. And the system wouldn’t mess with the affordable rates for D.C.’s working poor.

It wouldn’t, of course, solve the other problem: cabbies passing over anyone other than groups of white kids traveling a few blocks. Our driver did express disgust at the rampant discrimination but reminded us you can do something about it. A recent fare of his had gotten snubbed by a cab, wrote down its number and called the police. The driver had his vehicle towed. I was really surprised it was as easy as that. So get your pencils out next time you’re hailing a taxi.

The D.C. Taxicab Commission today raised the price of a cab ride $1 per trip to offset increases in gasoline prices.

A dollar more a trip? I think I can make it to a Metro stop.

As a black person, I’ve developed, somewhat to my embarrassment, a formula to avoid the anxiety-ridden act of hailing a cab: (1) If possible, just catch the bus. The bus does not discriminate. (2) If you’re going to be out super-late, just drive. Spending an hour searching for a parking spot beats being alone and stranded late at night any day. (3) If you’re downtown, especially near a hotel, find a taxi stand—cabs are lined up and they have to take you where you want to go. (4) If the trip is two miles or less, just walk.

While I rarely hail cabs at all anymore, I was reminded of this over the weekend when I had the misfortune of watching a middle-aged blind couple (who also happened to be black) trying to catch a cab near Metro Center. Situated across the street at a patio table outside of Potbelly’s, I watched this couple stand on the curb for about 20 minutes. Every 30 seconds or so, they’d listen for the surge in traffic before they raised their walking sticks into the air. And no one stopped.

Finally, a security guard from a nearby building came out and tried to help. But he was also black, and no one stopped for him, either. He then went inside to get somebody to help. This guy was white and, in a matter of seconds, a cab pulled up. It was one of those moments that you’ve read about or heard about on talk radio. For me, it was a moment that’s played out countless times in my life that I’d forgotten about—like having no one to sit with in the cafeteria; it probably happened to you a long ago, but since you’re not in school anymore, you don’t think about it.

How humiliating it was to watch that scene play out. I felt as helpless as I’m sure the security guard did. While we both had our sight, we still couldn’t do much to help the poor couple since we, too, were handicapped.

The other night I hailed a cab in Adams Morgan. When I got in, the driver asked me if I wanted to pay by zones or by meter. Confused, I pointed out that D.C. doesn’t have metered cabs. He said he’s a Virginia cab, and he’s giving me a lift illegally. As an experiment, I opted for the meter. My ride home to Shaw always costs $8.80. By meter, it was $6.95. I vote for meters.