Once upon a time, back when you could raise your hand on a Chicago street corner and hail a cab without fiddling with your phone or probing the cost-benefit equation of “wait and save” versus “priority,” it was a very rare thing when the driver refused to run the meter.
Then came rideshare, first hooking us all on super-cheap fares and driving the cab companies to the wall, only to reveal the bait and switch and amp up the fares even as amateur drivers blocked our streets. Government entities also started jumping on the Uber and Lyft bandwagons, adding fees.
So now Chicagoans often find that cabs are cheaper than rideshare prices, especially in periods of high demand. But that’s only assuming the drivers run their meters, as they are lawfully required to do.
Last summer outside a crowded Navy Pier, we found a driver with a working meter as rare as a dodo bird on DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
“Chicago’s taxicab regulations have fallen apart,” we wrote, arguing that bilking confused visitors was the last thing the city needed. Cabs have regulated fares for a reason: They provide certainty and security. Rideshares have higher fares at busy times and lower fares at quiet times. Users have been taught to accept this.
But cabs are a different entity. They’re regulated, and if drivers would prefer that the prices of their rides oscillate with demand, they’re free to drive for big tech.
We return to this topic because the cab drivers now are getting a raise from the City Council. A whopping raise.
Granted, it has been several years, but a 20% increase on the meter will cause some sticker shock for riders. The flag-pull starter will stay the same, kinda, but both the time- and distance-driven rates are increasing by more than 20%. Plus, a $2.50 “rush-hour fee” for trips between 3:30 and 7 p.m., and a new $1 fee for rides between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. will now appear on the meter (if you have a choice, between 7 and 8 p.m. looks like a sweet spot).
It’s a lot all at once, but we still don’t oppose this raise; drivers have been struggling, costs are through the roof, and we want to see a healthier taxi industry. But it needs to come with more enforcement of the rules: specifically, a clamping down on the compulsory use of the meter.
Enforcement won’t be difficult. All the city’s taxi inspectors have to do is hang out near a large event this summer and jump in the back of a cab. Ald Brendan Reilly, 42nd, with whom we stand on this issue, voted against this increase because he’d been ripped off one too many times; he even said in the committee hearing that cab drivers had refused to run their meters even when they were told there was an alderman in the back seat. Such was the sense of impunity.
It’s not Reilly’s job to regulate taxis or to hand out fines on the spot, but it is the city’s job, and we were chagrined to hear Consumer Protection Commissioner Ivan Capifali say under questioning in committee that the city has only five inspectors for the industry. That would be some 3,000 cabs and five people ensuring they keep to the rules. We’ve seen the results of that imbalance firsthand.
We’re for hiring several more inspectors and paying for those positions by handing out fines to scofflaws. We’d also like to see compulsory signs in cabs giving passengers an easy way to complain when they face a meter-less ripoff, and the city following up immediately with enforcement action.
As we enter another busy summer, a city where people can’t get home from a night out without being shaken down is not a well-functioning one. And it’s not a victimless crime: Passengers don’t feel safe when they don’t know the fare, and visitors to the city are especially vulnerable. We don’t see this happening in New York.
So, drivers, enjoy your raise. In return, you must keep to the rules, and the city should ensure you do so.
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