taxis

You can't just show up at mom's on Mother's Day without some flowers, even if you have just carjacked a cab

adamg — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:56:29 +0000

Hickey (l), CunneenBoston Police report arresting a couple of alleged sad sacks for carjacking a cab in City Square last night.

Police say one of the men jumped behind the wheel but managed to get only a short distance down Devens Street before colliding with two parked cars. The other man, police say, then ran up to the cab because in all the commotion, he'd forgotten to grab a "floral arrangement consisting of orange, yellow and red flowers" he'd brought with him.

Police say the two men, one wearing a Bruins T-shirt, the other a Celtics T, decided around 6 p.m. that rather than paying their fare, they'd hold up the cab driver.

Where supply doesn't meet demand in Boston

adamg — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:32:11 +0000

Sara photographed the cab line at Logan around 12:45 this morning.

Police: Man takes cab to South End robbery, then gets ride in vehicle with blue lights on top

adamg — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:58:42 +0000

4/23/12 - 1:31 am

Boston Police report Steven Lovering took a cab to the 7-Eleven store at 55 Berkeley St. in the South End early this morning, then decided to hold the place up even though the cabbie refused to stick around for him.

The problem with taxis

adamg — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:04:52 +0000

An Atlantic article on cab-alternative Uber focuses on Washington, DC, but a lot of it sounds familiar:

Almost all the everyday complaints about cabs trace back to this regulatory cocktail. Drivers won’t take you to the outer reaches of your metropolitan area? The regulated fares won’t let them charge you more to recover the cost of dead-heading back without a return customer. Cabs are poorly maintained? Blame restricted competition, and the inability to charge for better quality. Cabbies drive like maniacs? With high fixed costs for cars and gas, and no way to increase their earnings except by finding another fare, is it any wonder that they try to get from place to place as fast as possible?

Charlestown man charged as fare-jumping cabbie robber

adamg — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:02:18 +0000

3/30/12 - 12:48 pm

Boston Police report a Charlestown man who jumped out of a cab without paying early this morning attacked the driver when he got out to demand the driver's money and then tried to flee with the man's wallet, only to be tripped up by his own feet.

The high seas have the Flying Dutchman and Boston has Cab 1051

adamg — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:29:20 +0000

A disgruntled employee at a local cab company gets to the bottom of a mystery that's been plaguing him and co-workers since the required introduction of credit-card readers: People who leave things behind keep calling up asking to have Cab 1051 searched:

Every time someone runs a credit card in a Boston Cab with a particular credit card processing company it shows up on their card as "Boston Cab 1051" This is driving us ape shit. Someone even wrote a Yelp review on a company that has nothing to do with Boston Cab 1051 that says "1051 where are you". Those guys tell me they get 10 Boston Cab 1051 calls A DAY.

Two charged with repeatedly stabbing cab driver in the chest

adamg — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:37:53 +0000

3/20/12 - 1:22 am

A South Boston man and a man with no fixed address will be arraigned today on charges the stabbed the cab driver early this morning at Shawmut Avenue and Lenox Street, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Woman punched repeatedly by man who wanted the cab she was getting in

adamg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:19:50 +0000

1/28/12 - 11:00 pm

Mr. Magellan reports on an incident that happened as he was getting out of a cab at Tremont and Park Saturday night:

[T]wo girls were about to get in. Then two guys came up and tried to steal it from them. One of the girls just got in the cab and one of the guys called her a "disrespectful bitch" and then proceeded to lean in the backseat and punch her...hard. I couldn't see where/if he landed any punches but no doubt that girl would have been really hurt. His friend started messing with me but luckily I wasn't about to have any of that. The other girl got in the cab as the two guys were threatening me and then the cab took off. The cab peeled out and the guy chased it to a red light, where the cabbie had no choice and just ran the light.

Man's cab ride to East Boston ends at police station when cabbie refuses to let him out over toll dispute

adamg — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:41:11 +0000

Matt Karolian reports a harrowing ride today with a cabbie who refused to accept that city regulations prohibit him from charging the cost of the return toll to people headed to East Boston - a ride that ended at Boston Police District A-7, where the cabbie wanted Karolian charged with fare evasion and Karolian threatened to press a kidnapping charge.

Citizen complaint of the day: Stupid cabs blocking the bike lane at BU

adamg — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:28:24 +0000

The day after local bicyclists celebrated the opening of bike lanes on the BU Bridge, an irate citizen forwarded this photo of lane-hogging cabs just a few blocks away outside BU's Warren Towers:

Apparently the bike lane on Comm. Ave. is now a cab stand. 8 cabs in a row were parked there this morning around 8:40.

Police: Milton couple take cab to Dorchester guest house, then rob the cab driver

adamg — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:20:47 +0000

11/23/11 - 7:39 pm

Boston Police report arresting a pair of Milton residents who they say hailed a cab in the 1100 block of Blue Hill Avenue and had him drive around for awhile before directing him to the nearby Mac's Guest House on Callender Street:

The male suspect got out and walked up to the victim’s window and asked the victim how much he owed for the ride. According to the victim, when he told the suspect what the fare was, he pulled out a gun, threatened the victim and demanded all the victim's money. The suspects then took the victim’s money and fled.

Officers went into Mac's and asked if anybody had checked in recently. When told, why, yes, a couple just checked in, police went to their room and found Jocelyn L. Ashley, 20 and Nlorkeahwon W. Paye, 26, whom the driver identified as his passengers. They were then arrested for armed robbery, police say.

Innocent, etc.

Solving Logan's 30-minute taxi waits

adamg — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:24:33 +0000

With nothing else to do as he slowly inches to the front of a taxi line at Terminal B, Paul Levy analyses the taxi dispatching problem and comes up with a possible solution to the long lines caused, he said, not by demand, but by the way taxis are dispatched from the central cab parking area.

Boston cabbies may have to take credit cards, but they don't have to like it

adamg — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:07:07 +0000

Laura Vogel snapped this photo today, asks:

Remind me again how this is my fault?

The city increased fares 16% in 2008, partly to cover the cost of credit-card processing, partly to cover higher gas prices. Some cabbies, however, remain pissed over the credit-card requirement.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good fare of mine

adamg — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:46:21 +0000

Maybe the city was onto something with the proposal to paint cabs green.

Cabbies, city officials agree: Livery drivers are due for an asskicking

adamg — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:23:09 +0000

At a sometimes contentious hearing on taxi regulation - at which cabbies revealed plans to sue the city over its credit-card requirements - drivers, city councilors and the city taxi czar agreed on one point: The city needs to crack down on unregulated livery drivers and out-of-town cabbies stealing business from the locals.

All sides agreed drivers of black - and now sometimes white - cars need to finally come under city regulations. All sides raised the specter of livery drivers attacking passengers and driving without background checks.

"We have no idea what kind of crazies are driving these liveries," said City Councilor Maureen Feeney, who called for the hearing to discuss removing taxi regulation from police and giving it to some sort of citizen commission that would include drivers, representatives of the local hospitality industry and some large employers, along with somebody from BPD. Nobody mentioned representation for riders until Lumina Gershfield, director of the Future Boston Alliance asked for it late in the hearing.