Comments on: Taxicab fares: A theory

By: Malgorzata

Malgorzata — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:00:04 +0000

Tend to agree with Clarence. Flat rates would be nice. perhaps not so much for the ones taking the taxis quite often. Or am I wrong? Anyway, they do seem to be out of control and taking a cab just isn’t what it used to be… Times have changed… So what are we to do.. Other means of public ransportation does not seem to deliver either…

By: John

John — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:22:20 +0000

I think I can help here,:)

I own a cab company here in Carlsbad, CA

1. Once you get in the cab, the meter starts, $3.00 to start.

2. $0.30 for every 1/10 of a mile you travel.($3.00 every mile travled.)

3. When the cab stops at a red light, the meter stops. After 3 minutes the meter will switch over to wait time. My wait time is $50.00 per hour./$0.84 per minute.

4. Each cab company sets there wait time a little differant from each other. Same as there rates.

5. As for the driver at a red light slowly rolling forward, all that does is keep the wait time from turning on. He is most likly tring to get the light to change. :)

Hope this has been helpfull:)

By: Whitney

Whitney — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:43:47 +0000

Some cities, like Washington DC, actually calculate fares based on what zone of the city you are traveling in, and how many zones you cross- and cabs in more rural areas often charge flat rates. Interesting how geographic norms dictate differences in charges.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:34:25 +0000

That link didn’t show up. Hopefully this will:

http://memethief.com/math/taxifare.gif

-D

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:25:49 +0000

Interesting theory, but as others pointed out it wouldn’t be fair as rates wouldn’t be linear.

As far as bad drivers goes, choosing the right company seems to help a lot. In general I tend to avoid unaffiliated taxis, as those are the worst.

Diamond VIP is generally very good, but unless you’re going to the airport you can not get one easily unless you specify it and ask to pay with credit card or debit card.

Pontiac Hemlock is also very good in general.

I hate Taxi Co-Op and Atlas.

Something I can’t wait to see implemented in Montreal is GPS-based tracking & dispatching service, where all the metrics are monitored by the headoffice.

They have that in Brampton, and I must say it was one of the best taxi service I’ve seen. Very effective dispatch as they can send you the closest available cab, and by asking your destination they know how much time the ride should take, so they can proactively re-dispatch a new call to the driver. And by having everything tracked, if you make a complaint they can check the records, so it’s in the driver’s best interests to respect the road code… ;)

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:12:39 +0000

So… the longer a cabbie takes to get somewhere, the better. The best thing for a cabbie to do (just in terms of the equation) would be to take lots of side streets, and drive as slowly as possible.

What this equation works out to is:
(time)/(distance per time)
= (time squared)/(distance)

This means that the money accrued for a fare increases with the square of the time taken, and decreases linearly with the distance. I’ll give a few examples, using fare=1000x/y — the same principle applies regardless of what multiplier you insert into the equation:

Trip 1: 10km
Average speed: 40kph
Fare: 1000$*0.25h/40kph = 6.25$
Average speed: 30kph
Fare: 1000$*0.33h/30kph = 11.11$
Average speed: 20kph
Fare: 1000$*0.5h/20kph = 25.00$
Average speed: 10kph
Fare: 1000$*1h/10kph = 100.00$
Average speed: 1kph
Fare: 100$*10h/1kph = 1000$

Now let’s say we have the same destination, but we take a bunch of side-streets:
Distance: 20km
Average speed: 10kph
Fare: 1000$*2h/10kph = 200.00$
Average speed: 1kph
Fare: 100$*20h/1kph = 2000$

Clearly you’re not going to see cabbies taking 10 hours to drive someone somewhere. But I just wanted to point out that what you’re proposing is a quadratic, not linear scale.

I think what you want is a scale that optimizes fares at a certain average speed — say, 30kph. Then the further away you get from this speed, the more stiffly your fare is penalized. Or, to avoid penalizing cabbies for being in traffic, the speed penalty only really picks up past 30kph (or whatever). So, for instance:

distance – (speed/30)^4

would give a graph like:

-D

By: At Home with Kim Vallee

At Home with Kim Vallee — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:23:25 +0000

The taxi standards have lowered over the last few years. In MTL, I had more than my shares of bad rides so far this year. The other night, my husband and I tweeted on the cab about his poor driving and his awful itinerary choice.
Whether it is the formula or their training that is at fault I cannot say. But something has to be done to promote a better taxi service.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:26:03 +0000

One thing I’ve noticed while sitting in many a cab: during the wait at a red light, the driver will creep forward every few seconds. My theory is that this practice keeps his meter from switching over to the waiting fare, thus charging the customer full fare for all stops.

Considering how many circuitous rides I’ve been subjected to (despite my protests, even), and the number of times I’ve been nearly killed by taxis while cycling, I feel my cynical opinion of cab drivers is somewhat justified. At least in this city.

By: Clarence

Clarence — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:26:55 +0000

I’ve often wonder exactly how cab rates are calculated — my math is suspect, however, it seems to me that it would also prove profitable if you were to enforce a flat rate, based on distance.

1-3 miles, $5
4-10 miles, $10

…etc. I prefer a flat rate, because I can bank on it (this also makes it easier for me to tip based on my experience — which is usually how I tip).

You should pitch this piece to GOOD magazine or another along the same lines, bruh. This is pretty solid.