At tomorrow’s Board of Directors meeting, the San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Agency will review a proposal that would raise taxi meter rates to 55 cents per fifth of a mile or minute of waiting in traffic. If passed, those 10-cent increases to the current rates (plus another ten cents per fifth of a mile in potential fuel surcharges) would make our taxis the most expensive in the country according to a 12-city study conducted by the SFMTA. Adding insult to injury are the proposed two- and three-dollar fees for booking your ride through a dispatcher, meaning a phoned-in evening pickup could cost you over six bucks just for getting in the cab. The agency will be taking one last round of community input at tonight’s final taxi town hall meeting before voting tomorrow to authorize all or some of the new rates and surcharges. [Chron] [SFEx]
Long time Burbed readers know that one of the fundamental beliefs of this site is that the more expensive and unaffordable the Bay Area is, the better it is because that keeps people hard at work and delivering innovation.
So, I for one applaud this move. We should make transportation as incredibly expensive and painful as possible, so that people will feel the need to stay in more, and work on the next big IPO that will result in higher house prices.
Because… as we all know… higher house prices are the goal of any desirable area.
May 28th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
There is a benefit here for the tree-huggers too; more expensive cabs might convince some people to use public transportation. And with the “poor” riff raff on buses, the important people with good incomes will be able to hail a cab more easily.
May 28th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
I took a cab once in SF and was surprised how cheap it was. The City’s not big enough for cab fares to get very expensive, in fact its smallness makes it hard for cab drivers to make a living I’m sure. Try taking a cab what’s considered a “short” drive in Phoenix, that’s gonna get expensive.
Driving a car up there does not make a lot of sense in a lot of cases. Back when I had a Prius, when my vehicular pride was based on something more substantial than having a bike with rims that are relatively straight, I’d still take the train to go to SF. Now, if I had been taking 3 friends to Fisherman’s Wharf, that would be different. The gas (for a Prius anyway) and a day’s parking for $40 would be cheaper than train fares both ways plus the bus or streetcar to the Wharf. But being a typical American, I can only think of one other person who rode in it with me, and that was only a few times.
May 28th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
This guest editor is boring. Might as well post lists of zip codes.
Bring back sonarrat!