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At 12:01AM, taxi meters were reset to reflect the new fare increases.
Waiting time now costs 40 cents per minute while going under 12 MPH (versus the old 20 cents per minute while going under 6 MPH). The new waiting time increase translates into an approximate 11% increase in average fares (new fare: $9.60; old fare: $8.65), which drivers say will help go towards the rising fuel prices. Just make sure you have an extra few dollars as you take cabs during holiday traffic!
There's also a new flat fee of $45 from anywhere in Manhattan to JFK Airport
Photograph taken on Lexington Avenue by joe holmes on Flickr
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This means I'll be walking more, especially during rush hour...
This is good news. Hopefully this will translate into slightly less-psychotic driving from hacks, because they will be making more money when traffic is not moving.
the only ones making more money are the medallion owners. everytime there's a fare increase, they raise the cost of the daily/weekly lease.
"which drivers say will help go towards the rising fuel prices"
what happens when fuel prices drop? do taxi fares also drop?
The increase in our pockets will be slight, especially if they're going to have Nascar in Manhattan during gridlock alert days. We took a 20% cut in real wages since Katrina; this was a bad year for yellow cab drivers. More black cars doing illegal pickups, more new construction than ever before, less real enforcement and implementation of common sense rules. There are over 13,000 yellow cabs in this town yet for the majority of citizens we're considered scumbags by virtue of the 5% who are reckless on the road towards both pedestrians AND other vehicles. Bottom line is we all have to try to make travel work and taxis contribute a lot towards surface transit. Making our job a little easier can only help make getting around easier for everyone. Try to see it from the other guy's point of view.
fare increase means we shouldnt tip anymore. especially with the $1 night time surcharge.
RicktheCabbie, word. And I hope your tips don't drop. As for the fuel price BS, it gives the medallion owners an excuse to increase the daily/weekly lease while the drivers get to pay that increase and the increase in fuel price, and the increased fare doesn't cover both for the driver/lessee. So cabbies get the shaft...
A while back, I read that taxis make more money by picking up new fares, versus waiting around in traffic, because the base fare fee. I'm not sure how it works out with the new waiting time, but it does seem to make sense that it's more advantageous for drivers to avoid bad traffic situations. When they do get stuck in traffic, it's because their fares generally ask them to go in those parts of town.
Re: rising gas prices, I don't think fares have gone up as much as gas prices have, so a slight decrease in gas prices doesn't mean that fares should be lower.
If you can't afford a dollar increase in the taxi fare, you should not be living in Manhattan. What does a one bedroom condo/co-op cost? Rent for a one bedroom apartment? What does a martini at a club cost? But, "Oh My God-the taxi fare is going up a dollar"
My guess is that most riders won't even notice the difference.
I'm okay with the increase, but I still won't tip 95% of the time. In my opinion, tipping is just out of control. When you go to a restaurant, you're apying for the meal but tipping for the service. When you take a cab, the cab driver provides no additional service than taking where you ask (if that - half of the time they won't get off the phone to bother).
I've acually helped old women load their bags into cabs TWICE because the cab driver couldn't be bothered to get off the phone; I just happened to be walking by and see these women struggling. Of course, I'm sure the driver expected a tip.
Also, I love when I get into a cab, and the driver starts bitching loudly about how he has to drive to Brooklyn, and then complains when I don't tip him since he was being an ass the whole way.
I agree with RicktheCabbie that there are bad drivers that give the good ones a bad rap, but I would say that instead of 5% being lousy, it's closer to 90-95%.
I see this as a victory for Critical Mass bikers. People will notice the higher cost of riding a taxi and will quickly switch over to riding their bikes to work.
Riding in a taxi (as opposed to the subway or bus) is a splurge anyway, so the $1 won't really make a significant difference to a lot of riders. But the drivers should notice a little, that's certain.
One day all cabbies will drive hybrid cars, thus making the fuel excuse not so viable.
I hardly ever take cabs anyomre -- they're just too expensive, the drivers gab on the phone (loudly) the entire time, and you always end up in traffic. Now that I've figured out how to do the A Train/AirTrain to JFK, I think I'm done with cabs for good!
critical ass- i'm all for CM, but you do realize that there are about 120,000 other daily cyclists in this city besides Critical Mass participants, right?
And seriously, even if it's 35% of the drivers looking like scumbags out there that's over 4,000, so of course it's going to look bad. You have to take both the anecdotal evidence PLUS the statistical data to come up with an accurate picture.
Finally, this isn't really a rate increase, if it were the leases would go up, and after asking my company isn't doing that (right now). I look at it more as lip service to cabbies. A real increase would have been a gas surcharge back in May, like UPS and FreshDirect passed along to the consumer painlessly.
As a cyclist commuter, I would love for the CM community to shut the f*** up every once and awhile.
justanother - As another cyclist commuter, I've found that everyone else seems to have something to say for CM except for CMers themselves. On Gothamist, for example, it always seems that comments about CM come from everybody but those who actually ride in it.
Stop whining and keep riding.