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City councilor thinks Boston too tough on cab owners, wants to wrest regulation away from police

The Council's Committee on Public Safety holds a hearing Thursday on a proposal by Councilor Maureen Feeney (Dorchester) to create a civilian taxi board to oversee the city's medallion cab fleet.

Feeney says regulations pushed by Mayor Tom Menino and enacted by the police department's hackney unit three years ago that require owners to start buying hybrid cabs, install credit-card machines and wash their cabs once a day were simply too stringent, especially in a difficult economy. Cab drivers successfully sued to block the hybrid requirement but have been unable to shake the credit-card or cleanliness requirements.

The committee, chaired by Councilor Mike Ross (Mission Hill, Beacon Hill, Back Bay), will hear testimony starting at 3 p.m. on Feeney's proposal, which states that:

A civilian commission is able to work closely with the Boston Taxi Drivers Association to ensure that the needs of Taxicab drivers are met, that proper rules and regulations governing the Taxicab industry are in place, and that the industry stays ahead of the curve by keeping up with new developments in transportation technology without placing unnecessary burdens on medallion owners and Taxicab drivers.

Feeney points to New York, which has a five-member commission overseeing cabs. Her proposal calls for having one representative from the police hackney unit, which also oversees tourist trolleys and amphibious vehicles and pedicabs.

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Comments

If all goes well, the market will make it such that cab companies buy the cleaner and more efficient vehicles anyhow. Not to mention cater to the huge demand for credit card accessibility.

As always... What could possibly go wrong!?

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I'm not sure whether you're being totally sarcastic, but...

"The market" for taxi services in Boston is artificially distorted by the City, which limits the number of taxi medallions that are issued. Poor service would tend to be discouraged in a true competitive market, but that's not what we have here.

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I don't know if this will improve the situation, but cabs in Boston SUCK! to the point where i would rather drive, designate myself driver, and park....

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I wish this could turn into the start of a discussion of a complete overhaul of the cab system. I hate the cabs in this city so much that I usually choose not to go out at all since it's not worth the $20 it will take to get home; that's nearly four drinks. The other option is to stick close to the bus routes home and then check nextbus every five minutes from 12:30 on to make sure I can get on the last one.

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Couldn't agree more. Each time I take a cab I feel like I'm placing my life on the line or will be witness to the cabbie taking out a pedestrian or two.

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We can have all these other things, but for some reason we can't put a little light bulb in the roofsign that turns on when the cab is available. Obviously a little light bulb has never gone on over the head of the guy that runs the Hack unit (Cohen?)!

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The reason is because 90% of the drivers don't know how to use it.

Cabs are rented out to whoever wants to try to get their money back and then some. It's also the reason for the push against CC readers (not getting your tips right away, paying additional CC fees on top of the cab rental).

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i think tax evasion is part of the resistance too

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Keep the board for the regulations,

But get rid of the arcane and anti-competition medallion system.

If someone wants to run a cab, they should only have to register their business with the city.

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I've been told way too many times by the Cab Jihad at Forest Hills that they don't want to take me home to Rozzie Square, and I should take a bus. Do I have to scream "I gotta go potty" to get any service?!

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Could someone tell Mrs Feeney to shut off the lights and go home..

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No government should ever mandate that anyone buy a hybrid vehicle, or provide incentives for doing so, or penalties for owning a fuel inefficient vehicle.

At the end of the day, what matters isn't whether people own gas-sippers or gas-guzzlers, it's how much gas they use. The person who drives 40,000 miles per year in a 40 MPG hybrid imposes just as many external costs (air pollution, balance of trade, national security, mideast policy, etc.) as the person who drives 10,000 miles per year in the 10 MPG guzzler. Neither one of them should be penalized or rewarded.

Either the hybrid pays for itself in fuel savings, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, then what's the point, assuming that the pump price of fuel accurately reflects the total cost. If we want to discourage gas consumption, then the market is the only sane way to do it.

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"Either the hybrid pays for itself in fuel savings, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, then what's the point, assuming that the pump price of fuel accurately reflects the total cost." -- Um, does ANYONE believe that the price at the pump covers the total cost? Because the facts sure don't support it. I haven't heard of oil companies paying an significant share of our military budget, or for health care and remediation for those affected by pollution. And it's certainly not the gas taxes covering those things - they're not even high enough to cover road repairs.

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Problem solved by market economics.

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My point in posting that long piece was this: If the price paid at the pump is artificially low (i.e., does not cover all the externalities, i.e., the driver pays less than the full cost of his or her driving) then the fairly obvious solution is to raise the price paid at the pump. Deciding how to save gas - whether by switching to a hybrid, by carpooling, by taking public transportation, or by moving closer to work or getting a job closer to home - is precisely the sort of thing where each individual's value equation is going to be different, and is the sort of thing the market handles beautifully. The government should absolutely keep it's distorting mitts off it.

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I've never heard a group of people who whine as much as these drivers. Why not pull back all these licenses and give them to some out of work people. I'm sure plenty of people would gladly take the jobs right now. Is it really too much to ask that they provide a clean car? Or not talk on a cell phone while you have a passenger? We all have rules we need to live by to do our jobs. Other than the hybrid rule, none of these are really unreasonable.

What about the report recently about how much usage is up since they had to start taking credit cards.

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Why not take the system out of Boston hands all together and regionalize the system?

Oh, but that would be good for the customers. We can't do that. It was toooo mucchchhhh burrrrrrden to make them poor theiving bastards put in working carrrrrd reeaaaders so they HAVE to lie to visiting business people that the reader isn't working so they can leave the meter running while they get cash they don't really need to get!

Poor cabbies - next think you know, they will make them actually learn to drive safely and ... GASP!!! ... enforce the laws!

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the meter fare is based on mileage, not time.

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Idling/Waiting Time is charged at $28.00 / hour. This is clearly posted on the city's website.

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I understand having the meter running if I keep the driver waiting, or have them wait while I make a stop, but it chaps my ass to watch the meter tick up while waiting for the light to change, stuck in heavy traffic, etc.

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Have you ever wondered why a taxi driver will practically *race* toward a red light, then slam on the brakes right before the light and stop? It's not necessarily because he's got an unsteady foot. He gets paid for idling time, so he has an economic incentive to get to that red light as soon as possible, rather than smoothly coasting toward it.

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