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Boston has the most expensive cab rides in the country

WBUR reports.

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Too bad. The jobs are needed but cheaper fares still wouldn't keep the bridge & tunnel yahoos from bringing their cars in.

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Anyone who's paid the same amount to get from the Common to Kenmore that a Manhattanite pays to get from the Met to Wall Street could have told you this. I've never seen a city go so far out of its way to make cabs an almost non-option.

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New York cabs are up there, too.

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Not having learned anything from the medallion disaster in Boston, Brookline is switching from a licence to a medallion system also. And paying a consultant large bucks to tell them how to do it.

As a frequent cab rider in Brookline, may I sarcastially say "Yippee"?

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Adam, thanks for posting this follow-up to The Hack's earlier post. And while it doesn't really surprise me, it's nice to see that my general antipathy for the cost of cabs here is justified with numbers.

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I don't know why free-market types don't get together with car-free liberals and work together against the putrid medallion system. Those little metal tags cost as much as a house, and carry very little benefit except for the cab medallion financing industry and the rich, connected multi-cab owners. According to the article the state can't just "step in" and take away the requirement for a medallion because it's worth a lot of money? That's like saying tulips in Holland should be worth thousands of dollars because they once had a value bubble. A single cab shouldn't be worth a half million dollars, especially when it's a beat-up former police car. Get rid of the system.

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The same system works just fine in NYC. Shockingly, Boston once again finds a way to muck up something that other cities do with ease.

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Until they're not worth as much.

If the problem is a drastic transition from the status quo to a freer system, you can adjust the number of extra medallions you issue over time, so the transition happens as slowly or as quickly as you like.

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Yes, the city should get rid of the limited-number of medallions bullshit. In most other professions, anyone with their ducks in a row can get a license, and if there's too many of you, then it's that much harder to make a living and you have to actually start caring about what you do. Imagine that.

But until they get rid of medallions, couldn't we the people just reduce the demand for cabs, which might force the prices down? Demand that the T run longer, demand that the T serve all neighborhoods, educate people about Zipcar etc., organize ride-sharing, teach people that just because the money comes onto the SNAP card at the beginning of the month doesn't mean you need to use the whole damn thing all in one trip and buy more shit than you can carry, etc.

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People do demand that.

But then people put ballot questions trying to slash the sales tax to 2%, and soon they'll be doing the same with income and property tax proposals.

Everyone wants more of the services that benefit them, wants to cut the small budgetary services that don't (and add very little to spending), and want taxes eliminated.

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Just like liquor licenses, taxi medallions have become a high rate, black market commodity in Boston that drives up the overall costs of operating the business.

I fail to understand why there is a need to limit either. If a business has no previous record and wishes to sell liquor, issue a license and regulate it like all of the others that already exist. If a person wants to purchase a taxi medallion, erase the cap and allow it. Free market? Not in Boston.

It's funny that this came up today, since I just sent a letter and proposal to the city council on this very issue last night. Saturday night, I watched no less than 30 people attempting to hail cabs downtown within about 15 minutes with no success. There are simply not enough cabs in the city, and the licensed ones we do have are too highly priced. Transportation in this city is already bad; on weekend nights, it's abysmal. (No cabs, no late T service).

I also fail to understand why Boston came up with all these new regulations for taxi operators a few years ago, including a provision for all cabs to install rooftop availability lights, and yet has never enforced any of them. This is such a simple thing to improve the chances of finding a cab instead of needlessly waving at ones that are already full. Many other cities already do this, and yet Boston can't seem to get this together either.

Just my opinion. I can only imagine how difficult it is for cab drivers to make money, and The Hack's blog is proof of this. However, transportation options in this city are few and far between already. Bad for residents, embarrassing for visitors.

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Both liquor licenses and cab medallions are used as chips to make sure the right people's palms are greased.

Back room deals are what makes Boston work.

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Might explain all the traffic up here to New Hampshire for the liquor, actually...

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Isn't this this place for chants of WE'RE NUMBER ONE! again and again? We have the highest-priced cabs and right up there in most expensive baseball seats. What else can we claim?

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Anecdotal- but I see lots of ex-Mass folks who moved to other more "affordable" parts of the country moving back these days. NUmber one? Maybe not- but we are top 5.

Side note- if you don't like New England's weather- don't assume the rest of us don't. If there is one thing I cannot stand- is the elevator conversation assumption that we all want to live in Florida.

I like the weather here- lots of us do- please stop saying "Cold enough for you yet" (no it isn't)- "Wish you were in Florida?" (No- I don't). Crimminy!

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. . . I see livery plates all over Boston now? It seems every third car in traffic these days- in downtown Boston is a livery vehicle. And some of them- don't even look like they should have LV plates- I've seen em on ten year old Toyota Tercels and other compact cars.

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Livery vehicles can't operate on a meter, right? They're on hire, like for events, or on a contract like for taking kids to special schools. So it wouldn't matter if they're a cab-type car that can handle flying around in traffic 24 hours a day, since they might be just used for a couple scheduled trips on mostly highway or something.

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. . . my understanding of livery vehicles as well. Just seems like there are more of them- lots more of them in the past couple of years.

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Anyone who has spent some time out and about NYC at night can tell you that those Livery vehicles, even the stretch limos, often operate as secret taxis. You just haggle the cash under the table offer with them up front and you can take an idle limo like it was a cab.

Here in Boston might be different though as the Boston vs Brookline vs Cambridge cabbies all war with each other over territory (a more moronic system I have never seen for towns that should just merge already). A fourth player in the livery cars would probably get their tires slashed or something.

Of course we do have our official gypsy cabs here, but they're all guys who hang around the Stop+Shop in Jackson square offering to take you and your groceries home for a fee.

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. . . a livery dropping off people before. Negotiate a rate- and they take you. Not a habit- but I have done it a couple a times over maybe a ten year period.

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Merge Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge?

Cambridge is not nearly as incompetent as Boston, and a lot less corrupt.

Let Boston finish its decline and fall at its own rapid pace.

Cambridge should secure the bridges and become more like a gated community. It'll be a gated community that lets in poor black people and gives them posh accommodations, but keeps out nonresident Massholes. The gleaming walled city of Cambridge will still be standing long after Boston self-destructs.

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. . . not with your anti-Boston Cambridge parochialism- but on what planet do people think bigger merged governments are better than smaller town governments? I guess if you are a corporate bagman it is easier to bribe and buyoff one central government- where local people are dis-empowered- than it is having to deal with multiple local governments.

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...uhm are you familiar with our State Legislature? ....or perhaps the Mayor of our fair city? Some of our City councilors? Paragons of honest virtue, all. Thank goodness the town selectmen of my North Shore hometown could never be bought off...with a "site visit" to Kowloon.

I don't know which planet you're hanging out on, but I know which State's politics you haven't been paying attention to.

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If I want some fool ass costless comment from a "John-W" - I'll ask you for it. Beat it screen name.

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This thread is now in serious danger of degenerating into a flamewar. Please keep your readers in mind when posting.

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East Boston is absolutely infested with Livery-plated cars. Obviously many are taking people to the airport, but I see most of them down at Shaw's waiting to drag people and their groceries off to their homes. Nuñez Livery is a particularly annoying company that can be found honking their horns in front of your house early in the morning or generally driving like shit in shitboxes around Eastie. "Just trying to make a living" I know, but can you be less annoying about it.

I still prefer the tree-freshner-reeking, American-made cars staggering about the streets over the wide-ass Caddy SUV or stretch limos with NH plates cluelessly trying to figure out how to get in and out of the airport.

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before Chris Dowd does.

Stretch limos with NH plates?
>Implying that any of us would be snobbish enough to use those.
>Implying greentext works on this blog.
Are you sure those weren't CT plates?

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Some fun facts for you..

There are over 9,000 active Livery registrations in Massachusetts and roughly 4500 active taxi registrations.

There is no law that specifically states an LV car can not have a meter but there is a loosely worded state law that says something like must be ordered 1 hour in advance no cash transactions. Some LV cars actually do have meters in them these days.

Trust me no one follows that.

More and more guys are finding more creative ways to work without LV plates. Lots of guys are just getting normal plates while others get school bus plates and add a top light and a meter to the mix. Also no state law against this.

There is actually not even a law anywhere that says you must have Livery plates to transport people. There catch is most insurance policies have a rider that specifically states the policy is not to be used to make money.

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There catch is most insurance policies have a rider that specifically states the policy is not to be used to make money.

So, they are effectively driving uninsured, since the insurance company won't pay out when they rear-end you?

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