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.
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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.
Boston followed NY City's example by implementing a mandatory taxi partition installation requirement in the late 1960's. Nearly 30 years later a study was conducted and New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center released an emphatically scathing report.
New York City ER Trauma Surgeons Quantify Partition Risk. In 1996 four surgeons from the Department of Surgery, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center released a report, this is a review of it. “Craniofacial injuries resulting from taxicab accidents in New York City”Taxicab accidents are a common occurrence in New York City. This review was undertaken to characterize the nature of craniofacial injuries that result from taxicab accidents. Data were collected on 16 patients who required admission to trauma or plastic and reconstructive surgery services, after sustaining craniofacial injury as a result of a taxicab accidents. Front-end deceleration collisions were the most common mechanism of injury. Fifty-six percent of the patients were thrown against the bulletproof, Plexiglas driver safety divider and sustained an injury most commonly to the anterior midface. Both bony and soft tissue injuries were common in the entire group. Complex facial fractures were sustained by 56% of patients, with nasal-septal fractures, most commonly followed by naso-ethmoid-orbital, anterior frontal, anterior maxillary, and Le Fort I and II fractures. Only 1 patient in the group was wearing a seat belt and that patient was a driver. Given the high incidence of craniofacial injury, appropriate safety standards for taxicabs must be initiated, including the reevaluation of the utility of the safety divider and mandatory seat belt use for rear-seat passengers. 9/26/2005 “Craniofacial injuries resulting from taxicab accidents in New York City”. Talmor M, Barie PS, Shapiro D, Hoffman LA, LaTrenta G. Department of Surgery, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, NY 10021, USA. Passengers are smashing into the partitions in increasing numbers, resulting in debilitating head and facial injuries. An emergency room doctor at Bellevue Hospital describes the injuries as "a daily problem."
Boston taxi regulators and the NYC TLC have ignored years of auto manufacturers warnings, doctors' warnings, news reporters warnings, reports of US DOT warnings, but 'hears' only the cash register bells at the (taxi regulator-authorized) shops where the local partitions must be bought.
"The experience of New York City absolutely does not support the notion that partitions have increased the number of passenger injuries. Indeed, NYC regulators have moved confidently to expand their successful safety strategy to the much larger fleet of liveries as well." - NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission
All of the evidence is to the contrary. It is a fact, not a notion. Deaths are not uncommon. Eileen Hession of Brookline, was killed when on July 27th 1994 a car ran a red light on Commonwealth Avenue and smashed into the back seat (partition) of the cab she was taking to work. An upper East Side NYC woman died yesterday when the cab she was riding in jumped a curb on E. 42nd St., careened across a sidewalk and slammed into an office building. Passenger Mara Bitros struck her head on the taxi’s plexiglass partition after the runaway cab hurtled into a stone pillar at the entrance to 150 E. 42nd St., police said. The driver was seriously injured. Bitros, 47, had hailed the cab just seconds earlier on Park Ave. The slim, light-brown-haired woman was taken from of the crumpled taxi with blood soaking her white blouse and black skirt. Bitros, of E. 77th St., was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1999/08/28/1999-08-28_woman_dies_in_taxi_crash__ca.html Teen Charged in Fatal Crash Into Taxi By MARTIN MBUGUA, DON SINGLETON and DAVE GOLDINER Daily News Staff Writers A Harlem woman who loved being the pillar of her extended family was killed early yesterday when an allegedly drunk teenager plowed his Range Rover into the taxi she was riding in. The taxi passenger, Geraldine Penn, 50, of 250 W. 138th St., was headed home from the Port Authority bus terminal... It was not clear why Penn, who was sitting in the back seat, was killed in the head-on crash while the driver suffered much-less-serious injuries. Initial reports said Penn was trapped beneath the taxi’s plexiglass partition. The accident left two mangled vehicles in the street, which was littered with twisted steel and broken glass for hours afterward.
To become a licensed taxi driver in the city of Boston one must report to Boston police headquarters located next to Ruggles train station on the MBTA Orange Line. The prospect must prove that he is legally eligible to work in the United States and must have had a Massachusetts drivers license for a minimum of one year.
Chicago
Taxicabs in Chicago are operated by private companies and licensed by the city. There are about seven thousand licensed cabs operating within the city limits.[1] 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 and 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.
City of Chicago taxicabs must accept credit cards, unless the taxicab is independently owned and operated - that is, the cab does not belong to an affiliation. You can tell that a cab belongs to an affiliation from the logo on the outside door of the cab. Another way to tell if the taxicab that you are riding in is an independently owned taxicab - and therefore not subject to the requirement to accept credit cards - is whether the taxicab has a "partition" between the passenger compartment and the driver. Partitions are mandated for all taxicabs, except independently owned and operated taxicabs.[1]
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
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009) |
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 492 cabs, Yellow has license for 300, and Freedom has license for 250.
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 $2.25 per mile for Metro Taxi, $1.80 per mile for Freedom Cab, and $2.25 per mile for Yellow Cab, 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 reduced weekly lease, and have to pay for maintenance on the vehicle. Freedom Cabs taxis are usually the oldest and the dirtiest thanks to the company's generous policy of allowing vehicles that are as old as the limits of PUC, which is 10 years, to be hacked-up as a cab. In contrast, Yellow Cab requires that the vehicle is not any older than 6 years for new hack-up. Freedom Cab taxis are colored bright purple; this color has attracted a substantial amount of business from the gay community.
Miami
Taxicabs in Miami and Miami-Dade County are regulated by the Miami-Dade County Consumer Services Department, from which taxi drivers must obtain a chauffeurs' license.[2] Taxicabs must feature a decal or license number on the vehicle itself, as well as display the driver's picture ID and registration number inside the cab. All licensed taxicabs use SunPass transponders for electronic toll collection, added to passenger fares.[3] Most Miami taxis are painted yellow, although a few smaller companies use white or black vehicles instead.
Fares to popular destinations are based on a zone system which covers Miami International Airport (MIA), downtown Miami, Miami Beach and other communities east of the Intracoastal Waterway in Miami-Dade County, Coral Gables, and (for trips to/from the airport only) the Port of Miami. For example, a trip from MIA to South Beach (approximately 11 miles[4]) will cost passengers a flat fare of $32 (as of June 2009), inclusive of tolls.[5] Fares outside of these zones (including to Fort Lauderdale and Broward County) are metered; the first 1/6 of a mile costs $2.50, with each additional 1/6 of a mile costing $0.40 (not including any road tolls). An additional $2 surcharge (automatically included in zone fares) applies for trips to MIA or the seaport. As an example, a trip from MIA to Dolphin Mall, a distance of approximately 9.2 miles[6], would cost a passenger $27.25 (as of June 2009, including a $0.75 road toll and the $2 surcharge). A fuel surcharge may also be added to fares if gas prices reach $3.50 per gallon or more for three consecutive weeks. Tipping is not required, but is expected by most Miami taxicab drivers.[3]
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.[7] Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), a New York City government agency.
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.
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.
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.
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.[8] 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.[9]
Pennsylvania
Unlicensed taxicabs are found among the Amish of rural Pennsylvania. Old Order Amish do not drive, but will hire a van or taxicab for trips which they cannot use their traditional horse and buggy transportation.[10] Philadelphia has a partition installation mandate. Drivers continue to be killed in assaults and collisions now kill occupants on impact with the partition.
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.[11]
The issue of whether to legalize jitneys has been considered several times by Pennsylvania's Public Utilities Commission since at least 1975.[12] Famed Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson wrote a play called Jitney, which was published in 1982.
Washington, D.C.
The District of Columbia recently changed from an antiquated, zone-based fare system to a conventional meter-based fare system beginning May 1, 2008.[13] The rates are a $3 flag drop rate and 25 cents for every one-sixth of a mile after the first sixth of a mile traveled. There also will be a 25-cent charge for every minute spent stopped or traveling less than 10 mph. The snow emergency rate will be the regular fare plus 25 percent.
Additional passengers will add $1.50 each to the fare, and there are various other typical surcharges for luggage, dispatch, etc. The maximum fare for all trips within the city is $19.
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 Car models. Most of the District's 6,500 to 7,000 cab drivers own their own vehicles; in fact, the District is the only region in the country where the majority of cabs are independently owned and operated.[14]
Taxicabs by city
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009) |
| City | Taxi Certificates | Other |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta, Georgia | 1,600 | |
| Austin, Texas | 669 | |
| Baltimore, Maryland | 1,151 | |
| Boston, Massachusetts | 1,825 | 100 of these are wheelchair accessible |
| Cambridge, Massachusetts | 256 | 8 of these are wheelchair accessible |
| Chicago, Illinois | 6,999 | |
| Columbus, Ohio | 500 | |
| 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 |
| Orlando, Florida | 1,200 | |
| St. Louis, Missouri | 749 On-call + 184 Airport | 120 Premium Sedans |
| San Francisco, California | 1,381 | 71 of these are wheelchair accessible |
| Seattle, Washington | 842 | 16 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
- ^ City of Chicago
- ^ "Miami-Dade County Consumer Services - For-Hire Chauffeur". http://www.miamidade.gov/csd/Licensing/Business/for_hire_chauffeur.asp. Retrieved on 2009-06-10.
- ^ a b "Miami-Dade County Consumer Services - Taxicabs". http://www.miamidade.gov/csd/Licensing/Business/taxicab.asp. Retrieved on 2009-06-10.
- ^ "Google Maps directions from Miami International Airport to South Beach". http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=miami+international+airport&daddr=25.780397,-80.130565&hl=en&geocode=&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=16&sll=25.780938,-80.129428&sspn=0.010183,0.013475&ie=UTF8&ll=25.772378,-80.141144&spn=0.162933,0.215607&z=12. Retrieved on 2009-06-10.
- ^ "Miami-Dade County Consumer Services - Flat Rates". http://www.miamidade.gov/csd/library/flatRates.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-06-10.
- ^ "Google Maps directions from Miami International Airport to Dolphin Mall". http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=miami+international+airport&daddr=11401+NW+12th+St,+Miami,+FL+33172+(Dolphin+Mall+Associates)&hl=en&geocode=%3BCU9W8EEH2P1EFTlsiQEdl4A1-yFgvvgpXljiGw&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=25.792473,-80.288773&sspn=0.162906,0.215607&ie=UTF8&ll=25.788145,-80.324821&spn=0.162912,0.215607&z=12. Retrieved on 2009-06-10.
- ^ New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (2006-03-09). "The State of the NYC Taxi". http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/state_of_taxi.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-02-18.
- ^ New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission: Passenger Information, Rate of Fare, accessed June 11, 2006.
- ^ PBS and WNET (2001-08). "Taxi Dreams". http://www.pbs.org/wnet/taxidreams/history/index.html. Retrieved on 2007-02-18.
- ^ "Pa. Officials Cracking Down on Unlicensed 'Amish Taxis'", Insurance Journal, January 4, 2008
- ^ 'Jitneys remain in driver's seat', Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 20 June 2004
- ^ 'Jitneys Legalization Proposed to Ease Transportation Woes'
- ^ Final Rules, District of Columbia Register, Vol. 55, No. 15, Page 73
- ^ Fenty: Taxi Drivers Without Meters Will Face Tickets, Fines (Washington Post, April 22, 2008)
See also
External links
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