The D.C. Taxicab Commission made no recommendation to Mayor Adrian Fenty on whether to keep the existing zone system, change to meters or change to a hybrid "zone-meter" system. AU students said eliminating zones would make the cab system easier to understand.
The eight-member commission, led by Chairman Leon J. Swain Jr., met Sept. 11 and instead opted to recommend that Fenty look at the existing system.
The commission voted six times and didn't come to a majority vote once, The Washington Post reported. The only majority decision that day was to go back and examine the existing regulations as to gather more information, The Associated Press reported.
Currently, the city's taxi fares are based on the 23 city zones that radiate in a bull's-eye pattern from the Capitol area, rather than the time and mileage-based meters used in every other major U.S. city, a study from Schaller Consult of New York showed.
The cab driver is supposed to truthfully report back to the passenger how many zones the cab went through, what extra fees there were and the total cost of the ride.
One AU student said zones are confusing because it does not take into account the distance traveled.
"It could either be one block or from one side of the zone to the other, and it's the same price. It's really not fair," said Joel Croft, a sophomore in the Kogod School of Business.
Students should figure out where a zone ends to avoid crossing zones to save money, Croft said.
Another student said the change would benefit passengers and drivers.
"If people always are trying to get out before crossing into another zone, it wouldn't be fair to the drivers," said Layal Brown, a freshman in the School of International Service.
The system can also be confusing for tourists, many of whom feel they are taken advantage of, Victoria Isley, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Convention and Tourism Corp., told the Post.
"They question the validity of fares when they can't see the meter ticking," she said, according to the Post.
The commission was required to take action because of an amendment by Sen. Carl M. Levin, D-Mich., that requires the city to put meters of some sort in all cabs by Oct. 17.
Additionally, an August 2007 survey by Zogby International found widespread dissatisfaction with the cab system of D.C.
The survey, which polled 611 D.C. cab riders, found 67 percent rated the cab service as fair or poor, and 80 percent of frequent cab users found the zone system difficult.
"Zone-meters" were a third option brought to the commission's discussion. The zone-fare meter is installed in the car and uses Global Positioning System to track how many zones the car goes through. It then prints out a detailed receipt for the passenger. Zone Meters were installed in 300 yellow cabs over the past year, the Post reported.
In 1996, the commission voted to require meters in all D.C. cabs by 1998, the Post reported, but it has yet to happen.
