Taxis of the United States
Throughout the United States there is a mature system of taxicabs. Most US cities have a licensing scheme which restricts the number of taxicabs allowed. These are sometimes called medallions or CPNC (Certificate of Public Necessity and Convenience).
Often taxi businesses own their own cars, and the drivers are employees of the company. However, cabs can also be owned by separately-incorporated small businesses that subscribe to a dispatch service, in which case the company logo on the door is that of the dispatch association.
A suburban taxi company may operate under several different names serving several adjacent towns. They often provide different phone numbers for each fleet, but they usually all ring into a central dispatch office. They may have subsidiary taxi businesses holding medallions in each town. Taxi companies also may run multiple businesses, such as non-medallion car services, delivery services, and school buses, for additional revenue, as the infrastructure required for maintaining, operating and dispatching the fleet can be shared.
Boston
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The City of Boston, Massachusetts issues hackney carriage licenses. The Boston Police Hackney Carriage Unit handles the regulation of the city's taxis.
Chicago
Taxicabs in Chicago are operated by private companies and licensed by the city. There are over ten thousand licensed cabs operating within the city limits.[2] Licenses are obtained through the purchase or lease of a taxi medallion which is then affixed to the top right hood of the car.
Each medallion carries a numeric code, which is also displayed prominently at several locations on (and in) the taxicab. The medallion must be purchased from the city or from another medallion owner. The supply of medallions is strictly controlled to prevent a surplus of cabs, which means that medallions trade at a high price. Unlike other cities Chicago taxis can be of any color and drivers are not required to wear uniforms.
Flagging a taxi down is fairly easy throughout most city neighborhoods, but can often be more difficult in areas where there is low demand for cabs. Drivers are required to pick up the first or closest passenger they see, and may not refuse a fare anywhere within the city.
The passenger is required to pay the amount on the taximeter plus any additional tolls or fees. The initial entry, sometimes called a "meter drop" or "flag pull", is $2.25 regardless of distance traveled. Each additional fraction of a mile charge is $.20 for each additional 1/9 of a mile. Additionally, each 36 seconds of time elapsed, known as "wait time", is $.20. This charge is in place to ensure the driver still makes money if the cab is stuck in bad traffic. There is a flat fee of $1.00 for the first additional passenger and another $.50 for each additional passenger after that unless the passenger is under 12 or over 65 years of age.
An additional charge of $1.00 is added to the total fare on each trip to or from O'Hare or Midway Airports under the State of Illinois Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority (MPEA) Airport Departure Ordinance. The tax should appear on the meter as an "extra" charge. There is no additional charge for baggage or credit card use and tipping is optional but encouraged at the rate of 10% of the total taximeter fare.
Below are some estimated cab fares from State and Madison, the downtown zero point.
- State and Madison to O'Hare Airport: $30 - $35.
- State and Madison to Midway Airport: $22 - $28.
- State and Madison to the United Center: $8 - $10.
Rates from Chicago, excluding O'Hare and Midway Airports, are straight meter to the city limits plus meter and one-half from the city limits to the destination.
Straight meter fares apply to all trips departing from Midway or O'Hare airports to the following suburbs. (All other trips are metered at one and one half the rate from Chicago's city limits to the suburbs.)
Denver
Denver has three taxi companies, Metro Transportation (who also operates Taxi Latino,) Yellow Cab, and Freedom Cab.
Taxicabs are licensed by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) who regulates number of cabs, meter rates, and other rules and regulations.
Metro Transportation has PUC license for 498 cabs, Yellow has license for 300, and Freedom has license for 150.
Meter rates are as followed:
There is a flat 'flag drop' rate, which is $2.60 for Metro, $2.50 for Yellow. Once in the car, there are two rates: milage and time. Both are counted in $0.25 increments, and the dividing line between the two is 15mph. One can estimate their trip to cost $2 per mile, and approximately $0.25 per red light on that trip, plus the drop rate.
There are three 'flat rate' trips set by the PUC:
Downtown Denver to Denver International Airport, or DIA to DT: $43 Denver Tech Center to DIA, or DIA to DTC: $45 Anywhere within the city limits of Boulder to DIA, or DIA to Boulder: $70
Other rates vary by company, and include per-person rates, luggage handling, and pets. Individual drivers are also known to set their own rates for extraneous circumstances, such as bodily fluids in the car, or smoking with a non-smoking driver, which some local police will assist the driver in enforcing if necessary.
Vehicles are generally owned, inspected, and maintained by the Taxi company, and leased to the drivers. Some of the companies have 'owner drivers,' who are drivers that own their own vehicle, pay a slightly reduced weekly lease, and have to pay for maintenance on the vehicle.
New York City
The taxicabs of New York City, with their distinctive yellow paint, are a widely recognized icon of the city. There are more than 13,000 taxis operating in the city, not including over 40,000 other for-hire vehicles.[1] Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), a New York City government agency. "Medallion taxis," the familiar yellow cabs, are the only vehicles in the city permitted to pick up passengers in response to a street hail.
History
The first taxicab company in New York was the New York Taxicab Company, which in 1907 imported 600 gasoline-powered cars from France. The cars were painted red and green. Within a decade several more companies opened business and taxicabs began to proliferate. The fare was 50 cents a mile, a rate only affordable to the relatively wealthy.[2] Previous taxis, including the one that killed Henry Bliss in 1899, were electric.
By the 1920s industrialists recognized the potential of the taxicab market. Automobile manufacturers like General Motors and the Ford Motor Company began operating fleets. The most successful manufacturer, however, was the Checkered Cab Manufacturing Company. Founded by Morris Markin, Checker Cabs produced the large yellow and black taxis that became one of the most recognizable symbols of mid-20th century urban life. For many years Checker cabs were the most popular taxis in New York City.
By the 1930s the taxicab industry in the city was large and rife with corruption.[citation needed] Cabbies, many of whom at the time were Irish, Italian, or Jewish immigrants, were the frequent victims of unfair labor practices while passengers were often victims of price gouging. In 1934 more than 2,000 cabbies went on strike and occupied Times Square.[citation needed] In response, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia signed the Haas Act of 1937, which introduced official taxi licenses and the medallion system that remains in place today.
In the 1960s New York City experienced many of the problems of social unrest that engulfed other American cities.[citation needed] Crime rates increased along with racial tensions, and cabbies often illegally avoided neighborhoods of racial minorities.[citation needed] As a result, a quickly growing industry of private livery services emerged. Unofficial drivers were barred from picking up people on the street, but they readily found business in under-served neighborhoods. In 1967, New York City ordered all "medallion taxis" be painted yellow to help cut down on unofficial drivers and make official taxicabs more readily recognizable.[2]
The yellow taxi had been popularized by John D. Hertz, who started the Yellow Cab Company in 1915 and which operated in a number of cities including New York. Hertz painted his cabs yellow after he read a study identifying yellow as the most visible color from long distances.[2]
In the 1970s and 1980s both the unofficial livery services and the medallion taxicab companies began finding more and more of their drivers in the growing populations of Black, Latino, and Middle Eastern immigrants to the city as the previous generation of cabbies retired and moved out of the city.[citation needed] Crime in New York City had become severe at this point, and cabbies were often the victims of robberies and street crime.[citation needed] Bulletproof partitions between the rear passenger seat and the driver became common.
By the mid-1980s and into the 1990s the demographic changes among cabbies began to accelerate as new waves of immigrants arrived in New York. Today, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, of the 42,000 cabbies in New York 82% are foreign born: 23% are from the Caribbean (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), and 20% from South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh).[citation needed]
The working conditions of cabbies have changed as crime in New York has plummeted, while the cost of medallions has increased and fewer cabbies own their taxicabs than in previous times.
New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission
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The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), established in 1971, is the largest and most active regulatory agency in the United States, with jurisdiction over the city's medallion (yellow) taxicabs, livery cabs, "black cars", commuter vans, paratransit vehicles (ambulettes) and some luxury limousines. The TLC was founded to deal with the growing number of drivers and to address issues important to both the taxi and livery industries. Its predecessor was the New York City Hack Bureau, operated under the aegis of the New York City Police Department.
Among the agency's regulatory highlights are its institution, in 1996, of Operation Refusal, an undercover sting operation created to address the phenomenon of service refusal. In 1998, the TLC enacted a package, inspired by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, of regulatory reforms that included a structured framework of enhanced driver standards. In 1999 Danny Glover filed a complaint with the TLC after he was allegedly refused service by New York cab drivers. This resulted in a highly publicized Operation Refusal crackdown on drivers who were allegedly discriminating against certain passengers for various bias-related reasons.
However, Giuliani's crackdowns led to a series of successful lawsuits against the city and the TLC. In 2000, a federal judge ruled that the NYPD had violated taxi drivers' First Amendment rights by refusing to let the drivers engage in a peaceful protest of new rules. The TLC also lost a series of cases in state courts for implementing rules without allowing for notice and comment. In 2000, another federal judge ruled that the Operation Refusal sting violated the cabbies' due process rights. In 2004, TLC inspectors were embarrassed when they handcuffed and arrested 60 Minutes reporter Mike Wallace, charging him with disorderly conduct for simply questioning the treatment of his driver. In 2006, the city was forced to settle the remaining aspects of the Operation Refusal case. Under the settlement, the TLC agreed to pay a group of 500 taxi drivers $7 million.
The New York City TLC has decided to equip all medallion taxicabs, by early 2008, with new customer service technology, including credit/debit card acceptance, two-way text messaging between drivers and the TLC (to facilitate the return of lost property, and provide drivers with access to emergency information and business opportunities), and Passenger Information Monitors offering such amenities as an interactive electronic map, public service announcements and city happenings.
Medallion taxis and livery cabs
Only "medallion taxis," those painted in distinctive yellow paint and regulated by the TLC, are permitted to pick up passengers in response to a street hail. The TLC also regulates and licenses for-hire vehicles, known as “car services” or “livery cabs”, which are prohibited from picking up street hails (although this is less often enforced in outer boroughs) and are supposed to pick up only those customers who have called the car service's dispatcher and requested a car.
While medallion taxis in New York are always yellow, car service vehicles may be any color but yellow, and are usually black. For this reason, these taxi operators are sometimes called “black car” services. Despite the de jure prohibition on picking up passengers who hail on the street, some livery cabs nevertheless do so anyway, often to make extra money. When a livery cab engages in street pick-ups, it becomes known as a "gypsy cab." They are often found in areas not routinely visited by medallion cabs, and authorities tend to turn a blind eye to the practice rather than leave sections of the city without cab service. The use of gypsy cabs is strictly at the rider’s risk, and it is recommended that passengers negotiate a fare with the driver before entering, as the cabs are not equipped with meters, and fares are not regulated by the TLC. The driver also is taking a risk that the passenger will leave without paying.
Medallion taxis are named for the official medallion issued by the TLC and attached to a taxi’s hood. The medallion may be purchased from the City at infrequent auctions, or from another medallion owner. Because of their high prices, medallions (and most cabs) are owned by investment companies and are leased to drivers (“hacks”). An auction was held in 2006 where 308 new medallions were sold. In the 2006 auction all medallions were designated as either hybrids (254) or handicap accessible (54) taxis.
Hailing a medallion taxi
Yellow cabs are often concentrated in the borough of Manhattan, but patrol throughout the five boroughs of New York City and may be hailed with a raised hand or by standing at a taxi stand. A cab's availability is indicated by the lights on the top of the car. When just the center light showing the medallion number is lit, the cab is empty and available. When the OFF DUTY inscriptions to either side of the medallion number are lit, the cab is off duty and not accepting passengers. When no lights are lit, the cab is occupied by passengers. There is an additional round amber light mounted on the left side of the trunk, as well as an amber light at the front of the cab, usually hidden from view behind the grille. When activated by the driver, these "trouble lights" blink to summon the police.
A maximum of four passengers may be carried in most cabs, although larger minivans may accommodate five passengers, and one child under seven can sit on an adult’s lap in the back seat if the maximum has been reached.[3] Drivers are required to pick up the first or closest passenger they see, and may not refuse a trip to a destination anywhere within the five boroughs, neighboring Westchester and Nassau Counties, or to Newark Liberty International Airport. The TLC operates undercover anti-discrimination stings to ensure cabbies do not engage in racial profiling or otherwise discriminate against passengers hailing cabs from the street.
Fares
As of June 2006, fares begin at $2.50 ($3.00 after 8:00 p.m., and $3.50 during the peak weekday hours of 4:00–8:00 p.m.) and increase based on the distance traveled and time spent in slow traffic (40 cents for each one-fifth of a mile or 60 seconds of no motion or motion under 12 miles an hour). The passenger also has to pay the fare whenever a cab is driven through a toll. The taxi must have an E-ZPass tag, and passengers pay the discounted E-ZPass toll rates.[4] Taxi drivers are not permitted to use cell phones while transporting passengers, even if they use a hands-free headset.
241 million passengers rode in New York taxis in 1999. The average cab fare in 2000 was $6; over $1 billion in fares were paid that year in total.[2]
Taxicab fleet
After 1996, when Chevrolet stopped making the Caprice, the Ford Crown Victoria became the most widely used sedan for yellow cabs in New York. In addition, yellow cab operators also use the Honda Odyssey/Isuzu Oasis, Chevrolet Venture, Ford Freestar, and Toyota Sienna minivans which offer increased passenger and cargo room. The distinctive Checker cabs have, due to their durable construction, been phased out only recently, the last one being retired in 1999, being over 20 years in service.
In 2005, New York introduced incentives to replace its current yellow cabs with electric hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid[5] then in May 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, proposed a five-year plan to switch New York City's taxicabs to more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles as part of an agenda for New York City to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Approximately 90% of New York's 13,000 yellow cabs are Ford Crown Victoria. This proposal will help to reduce greenhouse gas emission equal to removing 32,000 private cars from the road.[6]
Pittsburgh
In Pittsburgh, 'jitney' refers to an unlicensed taxi. They are plentiful in low-income communities where regular taxi service is scarce. As enforcement is lax, jitney drivers have even created cooperatives to support each other and to establish jitney stands. They are known to gather at the parking lots of grocery stores in low-income communities. Some jitney drivers accept requests for service by phone from their regular customers.[7]
The issue of whether to legalize jitneys has been considered several times by Pennsylvania's Public Utilities Commission since at least 1975.[8] Famed Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson wrote a play called Jitney, which was published in 1982.
Washington, D.C.
The District of Columbia operates on a zone system; the fare is based on the zone the cab starts in when the passenger enters, and the zone the cab is in where the passenger exits, for trips which are entirely within the District. Washington is one of the few large cities in the United States to have taxicabs without meters. Cabs cannot charge for waiting time, and if the trip will not detour more than four blocks in doing so, are permitted to pick up additional passengers while carrying a fare.
For trips which terminate outside of the District, ("Interstate fares") the fare is based on mileage (plus special fees such as the taxi surcharge for trips to Ronald Reagan Airport in Arlington, Virginia, or Dulles Airport in Dulles, Virginia, the two main airports of Washington.)
The zone system was instituted shortly after World War II when meters were first authorized, when a temporary suspension of the meter system was imposed. This temporary suspension of the introduction of meters has been continued for over 50 years. The zone system was characterized by an official zone map (affixed to the back of the front passenger seat) which omitted many of the District's principal streets, making it difficult for passengers to determine which zones had been crossed during the journey.
In October 2005, the District began a pilot project that is intended to test of use of meters in DC cabs. The project involves the use of 24 taxicabs that have been outfitted with standard meters. The driver operates the meter during the course of each trip and at trip's end collects the usual zone fare but records both the zone and meter fare for comparative purposes. After 8 months the comparative cost data will be analyzed by universities participating in the project and a 'revenue neutral' rate for the transition from the zones to meters will be determined.
The goal of the District's project is to determine what meter rate should be used in the initial stage of the transition. The expectation is that an initial transition meter rate will be established that will allow drivers to raise the same amount of revenue under the new system as they did under the old for the same trips. Thus, policymakers can assure both drivers and passengers that, on a global basis, the transition will not have a significant negative impact from the standpoint of fares charged and income generated. The proposed rate must be approved by the District's Taxicab Commission and the City Council before it can take effect.
Many of the taxis are pale yellow or white. Some of the most common taxis in the city include Ford Crown Victorias, Ford Tauruses, some Mercurys, and even some Lincoln Town Cars models.
Taxicabs by city
| City | Taxi Certificates | Other |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta, Georgia | 1,600 | |
| Austin, Texas | 700 | |
| Baltimore, Maryland | 1,151 | |
| Boston, Massachusetts | 1,565 | |
| Chicago, Illinois | 6,999 | |
| Dayton, Ohio | 117 | |
| Detroit, Michigan | 1,310 | |
| Houston, Texas | 2,245 | |
| Los Angeles, California | 2,300 | |
| Minneapolis, Minnesota | 600 | |
| New York, New York | 13,087 | and 40,000+ other for hire vehicles |
| St. Louis, Missouri | 991 | |
| San Francisco, California | 1,381 | 71 of these are wheelchair accessible |
References
- Taxicabs per city study
- Baltimore study
- Boston study
- Los Angeles study
- New York City study
- San Francisco study
Notes
- ^ New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (2006-03-09). "The State of the NYC Taxi" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-02-18.
- ^ a b c d PBS and WNET (2001-08). "Taxi Dreams". Retrieved 2007-02-18.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) Cite error: The named reference "TaxiDreams" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ New York Taxis -- Getting around New York City in a Taxi [1]
- ^ New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission: Passenger Information, Rate of Fare, accessed June 11, 2006.
- ^ New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (2005-09-08). "Taxi and Limousine Commission Votes Today to Authorize Cleaner, Greener Hybrid-Electric Taxicabs". Retrieved 2006-08-16.
- ^ Rivera, Ray (2007, May 23) Mayor Plans an All-Hybrid Taxi Fleet. New York Times, p. B1
- ^ 'Jitneys remain in driver's seat', Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 20 June 2004
- ^ 'Jitneys Legalization Proposed to Ease Transportation Woes'