Inspectors were poised to hit meterless cab drivers with $1,000 fines Sunday, the first day of enforcement of the city’s switch to a time and distance meter fare system after months of debate and protest.
The crackdown comes less than eight months after Mayor Adrian Fenty announced he would ditch the District’s zone fares in favor of the meters. Fenty’s hand was forced: U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., mandated the change, though he gave the mayor the option of backing out.
“I don’t think you’re going to find a cab operating in the District of Columbia without a meter in it,” Leon Swain, chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, said Friday. “But if you get into a cab and you find out that cab doesn’t have a meter, as far as I’m concerned you don’t have to pay the fare. That’s not a D.C. taxicab.”
A coalition of taxi drivers fought the switch in court to no avail, but the legal fight slowed the process. The meter deadline was May 1, but Fenty offered a month of warnings, allowing the cab industry to catch up. As of Memorial Day, 4,200 of the District’s 5,700 licensed cabs had meters installed, Swain said.
All cabs servicing Union Station on Sunday bore “Certified Metered Taxi-Cab” stickers on the side. But drivers complained about the money being lost with the switch.
“Every trip we are losing money,” said Hang Yang, who owns an independent cab company and made the switch to the meter system 15 days before the deadline. What used to be close to a $55 trip to Dulles Airport is now around $40, according to drivers.
Swain said he had 11 inspectors roaming the streets Sunday. Metropolitan Police Department officers also are authorized to issue citations for operating without a meter.
Metered cab fares start at $3, plus a $1 gas surcharge, and increase 25 cents for each one-sixth of a mile traveled, or for every minute stopped in traffic or moving under 10 mph.
The fare for a D.C.-to-D.C. ride is capped at $19. All meters provide a printed receipt that includes the cab’s name and number, the fare, the rate, the mileage and the time of the ride.
Kyle Sawa, a George Washington University law student, said he welcomed the meter system. “I feel like you had to bargain with cab drivers with the zone fare system,” said Sawa.
Madeline and John Horan, tourists originally from New York, favored the meter system after riding in a cab Saturday that was still operating on the zone fare system. “With the meter, you can see what’s happening with your fare,” said Madeline.
Doug Jackson-Quzack contributed to this report.
