Did you know that taxi fares increase on Sunday? Did you know that the increase goes to the MTA?
As part of the piecemeal MTA bailout package, Albany approved a 50-cent surcharge on all metered taxi rides. That surcharge goes into effect on Sunday, and as amNew York’s Heather Haddon reports, neither cabs drivers nor taxi passengers are looking forward to it.
With the price just to enter a cab heading up to $3.00, New Yorkers are bemoaning the fees. “It was already out of control. Now it’s even worse,” Kim Dae, a so-called “frequent taxi rider” and West Village resident, said. Of course, therein lies the rub. Ms. Dae lives in the West Village, an area serviced by around 11 subway lines depending upon by which stop she lives. She might enjoy taking a cab, but the millions of us who ride the subway every day need the trains to run.
The taxi drivers, though, may have a legitimate gripe with the surcharge. Writes Haddon:
Taxi drivers are livid about the new fee, saying it will be difficult to collect and hurt their business. They are also fuming that new door stickers list the initial fare as $3, making it seem like drivers are getting a raise, said Bhairavi Desai, director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents 12,000 drivers.
“We think it’s deceptive,” Desai said.
The tax will be itemized on ride receipts, and listed on the interior TV screens and rate cards, a Taxi and Limousine Commission spokesman said. “The TLC will continually monitor the proper implementation of the meter change,” the agency said in a statement.
The enforcement and collection issues remain unaddressed. Critics of the taxi surcharge plan have long wondered how much it will cost simply to collect fifty cents per taxi ride from the city’s licensed hacks. It will require more diligent record-keeper than that currently employed by drivers to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Drivers, meanwhile, as Desai points out, draw the short straw. If the surcharge is not clearly demarcated as supporting the MTA, riders will think the drivers are drawing in more revenue when, in fact, the opposite is true. Tips may go down, and the already-strained driver/passenger relationship may get worse.
To end Haddon’s piece, Straphangers Campaign head Gene Russianoff issued a platitude as a statement. “No one likes a tax,” he said, “but no one likes a sky-high transit fare or cuts to service either.” The answer, though, is simple, and it is one I have repeated numerous times. Instead of taxing the taxis, toll the bridges. The money would flow directly from the MTA and would represent a more equitable reallocation of resources than the taxi surcharge will.
On Wednesday, Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch told an audience at NYU that bridge tolls will one day happen. When it does, the city and its public transit will be better off for it, and we can attempt to leave this stopgap array of taxes and fees in the dust.
16 comments
The base fare on taxis has been $2.50 for years.
Yeah, oops. My mistake. It’s corrected.
Damn … Did not know about the taxi fare hike. While you are the bearer of bad new for me, thanks for the update. This is why I love the site!
I don’t think the drivers will hurt as badly as they’re making it sound. If you’re paying by credit card, that’s just an additional 50 cents added into the total. That will make the suggested tip amounts marginally higher.
Great point Todd. Taxi drivers will assume that due to an increased base fare, people will alter their tips down to compensate. I don’t see it happening. Although this may perhaps be the case shortly after the switch, I would guess that 6-12 months down the road people will forget all about it. And of course, the suggested tip amounts will be higher, as you noted.
I’d love to see the numbers (impossible, I know) on tipping levels that taxi riders paid before and after credit card payment became a mandatory type of acceptable payment method for taxis. I’d be willing to bet that the tips to drivers have increased, even WITH the small percentage taken off the top by the credit card companies. When swiping a credit card, people just don’t think about the amounts as much.
Although I rarely take taxis, I will not be basing my tip on the added 50¢ MTA surcharge. I do not tip a waiter on the tax on my restaurant bill and I will not tip a taxi cab driver on the surcharge added to my cab fare.
Kim Dae – Must be hard to live in the West Village! Poor you!
Oh, leave Kim D and taxi passengers out of this. You can’t blame anyone for taking advantage of NYC taxis. I love the subways, but seriously, if I ever have the money, I would rather not take them unless it’s faster. During the day there’s crowding and obnoxious passengers, bums, discourteous employees, and constant interruptions from fake outreach workers, and at night there are those same things, but drunker. I rarely feel unsafe on the subway, but lots of people do not feel safe – especially women at night. And SAS readers and commenters know that there are so many things the MTA could do to address every one of these issues, and potentially start appealing to more customers like all the people with more money that would rather not deal.
Taxing the bridges sounds better to me – taxi drivers are already treated like crap by enough people in this town.
what no one seems to realize is that we get 20% deducted from each credit card transaction, coupled with an occasional satellite failure which makes it harder to get money. mostly tips are better now with credit cards, but most nobody uses the suggested tips, and some still tip nothing. people never change only technology.
adding tolls on bridges would be the best solution, it would minimize traffic and therefore increase our income. Also bridge tolls would create a quicker source of income for the mta.
Oops, I mean 5% is deducted
Is it 5% over the base amount, or 5% over the total? In other words, if the fare is $10.00 and I pay $11.50, does the credit card company take ¢50 or ¢57.5?
“bridge tolls will one day happen. When it does, … we can attempt to leave this stopgap array of taxes and fees in the dust.”
Ha ha. You seriously think that once we have (more) bridge tolls, they’ll repeal all the other MTA taxes, like the sales and income tax surcharges, and this new taxi fee?
“Although I rarely take taxis, I will not be basing my tip on the added 50¢ MTA surcharge.”
I hope you have fun with the 7.5 cents you’ll be saving on each taxi trip.
NYC taxis are cheaper than any city I have ever been in, in the US and elsewhere. The start fare in Japan is 660 Yen, which is about $8.
In Singapore, the start fare is S$2.40, and the fare increases in increments of 10 cents afterward; the meter clicks only slightly faster in Singapore, once per 240 meters versus once per 320 in New York. So for example, a free-flowing 10 km ride would cost $14.90 in New York, and $6.10 in Singapore.
The Singapore dollar trades at 1.40 to the US dollar, even after adjusting for living costs.
I was unaware of this and accused my cab driver this morning of tacking on a surcharge that doesn’t exist. I looked on the screen for “taxi info” and the surcharge hours had not changed. I cab it to work every morning, so I really didn’t think I was wrong. Now, I feel like a jerk. Maybe this will be motivation to wake up earlier and walk to work.
please is the website or the address the green taxi suppose send the surcharge money please give me the address thank you