SF taxi drivers and passengers take note: the day the former of you get a pay raise, and the latter of you shell out more is upon us: as the Ex reminds us, starting next Monday the starting price of a cab will rise from $3.10 to $3.55.
Meter rates will also rise to from 45 cents per 1/5th mile to 55 cents, which means an overall increase from $2.25 per mile to $2.75 a mile.
Each minute of waiting or traffic time delay costs 45 cents today, and will rise to 55 cents a minute as of Monday.
That makes SF one of the priciest cities in the US to catch a cab — according to ABC7 Los Angeles cabs charge $2.70 per mile, and New York taxis charge $2.00.
Supervisor Scott Wiener has gone on record as opposing the fare increase, telling ABC7 that “We have poor cab service in San Francisco. To make that service more expensive without improving it, is a big mistake.”
However, as previously reported, next week also marks when 87 new taxis will take to the streets of SF, accounting for 6% of the city’s overall fleet.
Will the increase in cabs make riders more comfortable with the increase in rates? Will the increase in rates make drivers happier about the increase in competition? How’s Scott Wiener doing with all this (a call to the vacationing Supe was not returned at publication time)? We look forward to finding out.
Want more news, sent to your inbox every day? Then how about subscribing to our email newsletter? Here’s why we think you should. Come on, give it a try.
