October 19, 2007
Zone fares to kick in Monday at 5 a.m. for taxi strike
When New York City taxi drivers go on a 24-hour strike starting Monday morning at 5 a.m., the "zone fare" system will kick back into place -- virtually the same one used during the 48-hour cab strike in September, city officials said Thursday.
The zone fare will also allow for group rides and a few choices for airport passengers. However, the whole thing could go back to the regular metered farebox at anytime if the strike doesn't materialize, as determined by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, (which inexplicably hasn't yet bothered to post the zone rates on its website eventhough this strike date was announced more than two weeks ago.)
Here's the meat of the NYC taxi zone fare rates: The zone-based fare structure citywide charges $10 per person within a given zone, and an additional $5 per person for each zone subsequently entered or passed through. ...
Zone A
Manhattan: South of 23rd Street
Zone B
Manhattan: 23rd Street – 60th Street
Zone C
Manhattan: 60th Street – 96th Street
Zone D
Manhattan: North of 96th Street
Zone E
Brooklyn
Zone F
The Bronx
Zone G
Queens
Zone H
Staten Island If you're going between Kennedy Airport and Manhattan during the strike, the flat rate is $30 per person over the age of 12, including tolls. For LaGuardia, it's $20. (That's both to and from the airports.) But if you're going from the airports to the four boroughs that dont start with the letter "M," then you'll fall into the regular zone fare. (Both JFK and LaGuardia airports are in Queens.) However, airport passengers also have the option to pay for "group rides at a zone-based fare structure, or non-group rides at normal metered rates," according to the TLC.
 Many of the city's cab drivers are angry about the new technology they're required to install in their cabs, including credit card machines and a global positioning system that allows back-seat passengers to follow the cabs route on a map of the city. Drivers have complained that the GPS is an invasion of their privacy, that the machines are expensive and prone to breakage. And when the system malfunctions, it completely disables the meter and puts the cab out of service requiring them to head back to their base -- often in Queens or Brooklyn -- for repairs.
As of October 1, all cabs coming up for their annual inspection were required to have the new technology in place, with a target date of most cabs outfited with the technology by January. However, the TLC has allowed for examptions because the equipment isn't working as promised, according to the Oct. 5 TLC statement (in pdf format):The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) sent Taxi Tech a letter today because they have not met the terms of their contract with the TLC. Taxi Tech has 30 days to meet these requirements. It is possible that the TLC will terminate its agreement with Taxi Tech because they cannot meet the terms. The strike has been called by the Taxi Workers Alliance, which technically isn't a union, though it has said it represents about 10,000 of the city's 40,000 yellow cab drivers. During the September strike, it was unclear how many drivers were no shows. Estimates ranged from 20 percent to 90 percent, and while some cab queues were slightly longer, plenty of open cabs (at least for sharing) could be seen on the streets during the job action.
Earlier: Another NY taxi cab strike set for Monday, October 22
October 19, 2007 11:05 AM in Arrivology, Transportology
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