Washington’s contentious zone system for taxi fares will soon be replaced with meters, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced yesterday.
This change will simplify taxi rides, but Fenty needs to be careful that meters do not increase pollution and congestion.
“The decision was based on the fact that a majority of the citizens of the District of Columbia want a change in the taxi system,” Leon Swain, chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, said. He cited the hard-to-discern zones as a reason for its unpopularity.
Dena Iverson, a spokesperson for Mayor Fenty’s office, said a Zogby poll found 68 percent of riders wanted a “clearer relationship between fare and distance traveled.”
But both Iverson and Swain are contradicted by one of the Taxicab Commission’s own studies. A taxi ridership report released last August found 49 percent of respondents opposed the change, while only 48 percent wanted it, with a 4 percent margin of error. This is hardly an enormous popular support base.
Even if the commission can’t say it has wide backing in the city, it’s a pleasant surprise to see the zone system, a perplexing arrangement that has existed since the Great Depression, take its position beside the Georgetown trolley in Washington transportation history.
Between the zone system and his school takeover, Fenty seems to be staying true to his reformer promises.
Two taxi drivers waiting outside Georgetown’s gates at 37th and O Streets were less thrilled about the demise of zones.
“[Zones] That’s the way I think it’s supposed to be,” said Charles Weller, an independent operator who has been driving a cab for three years.
Romanus Anamege, another driver, worried that meters would prevent them from taking multiple fares in the same trip. This could lead to more taxis on the streets, longer hours for taxi drivers and more carbon-dioxide emissions in a city that already produces more than some European countries.
“I feel like the zone system works better,” he said.
Swain dismissed the taxi drivers’ concerns.
“They have no knowledge of what they’re talking about,” he said. “We haven’t even decided the specifications on the meters yet. I think it’s odd that people are saying what we can’t do.”
Swain said he has called a meeting of the Taxi Commission to make decisions about the meters.
He would not provide an estimate on when the change would go into effect, but he expected the meters to allow multiple fares.
Mayor Fenty made the right decision eliminating the zone system. Now it’s up to the Taxicab Commission to correctly implement his changes.
