Did you have a good holiday? Mine was fantastic. Good eats and cheap beer. What a country!
I did some party-hopping and depended on taxis to get me around. I even flagged one with a meter! It was cheaper than the zone system. Get on that, Fenty.
Unfortunately, getting into a cab was more difficult than I anticipated. I imagined that most of the cabs were around the Mall to get tourists from the fireworks back to their hotels. However, the cabs that did pass me by were especially frustrating. Why can't cabbies in this stupid city shut off their taxi light when they already have passengers? I mean, it's not that fucking hard. Other cities' cabbies are able to do with little to no fuss.
I know innovations like taxi lights and meters might be new and confusing to some in the city, but I bet people will figure it out in time. The 20th Century awaits! Excelsior!
7.05.2007
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It's the Twentieth already?
ReplyDelete(thanks for the laugh)
Now you finally know how the black man feels.
ReplyDeleteYeah but the latinos always try to fit 20+ people inside a little van. Then 50+ inside their apartments
ReplyDeleteAnd no one will get anywhere near saltine alliance's lonely and racist molester van. He is pissed.
ReplyDeleteI think in cities that have meters, the light on the top of the cab is connected to the meter, so when the driver starts the meter, the light automatically goes out.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of meters in DC is probably the main reason why there is no consistency in how the lights work.
cabbies don't turn off their lights because they will pick up multiple passengers even when it is not on the way.
ReplyDeletei once took a cab from the rocknroll hotel to irish times, but the cab driver picked me up with a girl who was going to the other end of eastern market and he dropped her off before taking me and my friend (whom he refused to take to CUA, but would drop him off at a metro) to union station.
but then, once we got out at union station and there was no one there for him to pick up next, he said "oh hey man, i'll take you up there now."
awful. but im kind of glad he didn't meter that shit. i think that would have been an abundance of miles and totally illegal.
Uh, that was illegal. They can take you no more that 5 blocks out of your way (when they pick up other passengers), and they also must deliver you to any location in DC you asked to be taken to (and cannot refuse once you're in the cab).
ReplyDeleteYou should have a) insisted, b) not paid, c) reported the cab, d) a combination of the above.
[In a sedated, monotone voice]
ReplyDeleteGood... morning... you're.... listening to N.... P.... R.....
And now... a story about the mating habits of emus....
anon -
ReplyDeletei am now aware of my taxicab rights, unfortunately, at the time of the event i was just a mere college sophomore and didn't take cabs much. oh, if i had known what i know now...
why isn't there an orrientation class when you get to college about this shit?
@miss bee
ReplyDeletebecause fr. o'connell is more concerned with keeping the cua kids away from progressive media and the green line
This blog gets whinier every day.
ReplyDeletethe title of the blog was no indication?
ReplyDeleteYo saltine whats poppin my cracka?
ReplyDeleteYou and your crew still using the elevator then jumpin the gate and getting free metro rides over at the Tenlytown station?
If you track the periodic discussions on zone vs. meter in the DCist comment threads, you'll occasionally find that the most vocal support given to the zone system are from people who've mastered it and feel (perhaps correctly) that they'd lose out with meters.
ReplyDeleteOf course, if you put a dollar value on the time it takes you to "master" the zone system, it may not be worth the trouble. It's an ideal activity for people with no self-esteem! Celebrate and Discover!
I think this city has way more things to be hateful about than METRO. I'd like to see you write and comment about something more apalling than a track detour or a 5 minute delay on the red line.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that The Post published every single DCPS school teacher's name and salary information on their webiste?
Check it out.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/interactives/dcschools/scorecard.html
Pick a school, any school and then click on the Schedule A Personnel Data Link.
If you ask me, that's kinda crazy!
Big shout out to TYRONE the custodian for pulling in a cool $29,573 a year.
ReplyDelete29k just to mop the floors?
ReplyDeleteWhere do I sign up?
Great post. "Excelsior!" was the perfect ending. I actually guffawed.
ReplyDeleteThe DC "zone" system is designed to ass rape anybody who doesn't live within the first zone. The map is confusing as hell, especially when you're drunk at 4am in Adams Morgan and everything is spinning as it is. Take a gander:
http://dcliving.com/washington_dc_living/000055.html
The pointy square that is DC somehow falls over on its lower left quadrant. Different adjacent zones are the same color. No recognizable landmarks - who the fuck picked "Soldier's Home" and "St Elizabeth's Hospital" as noteworthy? Designed to ASS RAPE.
Fenty is actually doing something about this bullshit by pushing for a redesigned map (click PDF link):
http://newsroom.dc.gov/show.aspx/agency/ddot/section/2/release/10524
Wow! A map you can read. What a very un-DC concept. Until I saw this map, I had no clue that by walking two blocks south on Wisconsin, I could save $2.00 on fare if I wanted to get dropped off in Georgetown.
Hopefully they require it to cover the entire back of the passenger seat so it's easy to read after binge drinking.
Denizen,
ReplyDeleteI actually checked for the new map. It's not there yet.
I can't tell you hoe many times I've taken a cab and demanded, insistently, that I gbet dropped off BEFORE NEBRASKA.
I got student loans. That extra $1.50 adds up.
I just checked out my old elementary school. The custodian there make just over 40k, and there are several teachers hovering around 100k. And here I thought teachers were poor.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt! We gets down like that. You really should roll with us sometime. Free rides on metrorail all day everyday! Shit. I aint even bought a farecard since way back in 92.
ReplyDeleteWowwwwww.
ReplyDeleteI never knew there were saltine alliances here in the district.
I thought that was only a midwest thing.
Meters might be cheaper in DC 3:00 in the morning but when you sit in a typical DC traffic while picking your nose, the meter keeps ticking no matter what and then you start dreaming about the good old zone system days.
ReplyDeleteBut I am all for what the public wants, I don't care if its either zone or meter, either way I know I will make a shit load.