DC Taxi Commission: “Tell Us What You Think”

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by Prince Of Petworth August 26, 2015 at 10:05 pm 15 Comments

dctc

Uh… a little vague but for those who are interested.

guest1

omg this is going to be fun.
dcd

I don’t think about taxis anymore – at all. I take Uber or Lyft. You reap what you sow.
- ShawShank
  
  +1
- Trip Throckmorton
  
  This. Haven’t looked back because Uber’s service is wonderful and reliable.
Kelly

I think that it is too little, too late Taxi commission. You’ve been the bottom of the barrel so long, you are beyond saving. Your members are illiterate maniacs who drive cars older than my son (he is in grad school). You’ve fought each and every minor effort to bring you into the 20th century ( let alone the 21st) and when the taxi system in a place like Djoubti Africa puts you to shame, you should just close up shop. There is a reason Uber is so popular in DC.
Will

Dear District of Columbia Taxicab Commission:

My life recently got flipped-turned upside down, how much would a cab cost me to visit my auntie and uncle in Bel Air?
- Los
  
  Smell you later.
textdoc

This sounds like lip service. If they really cared what customers thought, maybe they’d take real action to address longstanding problems, especially the ones that have been the subject of various news exposes (not taking black passengers, breaking the rules at Union Station after the DCTC inspectors’ shifts end, etc.).
JohnH

If they had any sense, they’d develop an app similar to Uber/Lyft. I’m not going to call a cab company to get a cab when there’s Uber/Lyft. It’d also be nice to schedule pick ups through the app (i.e. early morning trips to the airport). Uber/Lyft are good, but hardly perfect.
- anon
  
  Reinventing the wheel on ride-hailing apps for a single city’s market is economically impossible. The app would either suck or the costs of building it would not justify the revenue that only a single city market would generate.
  .
  When Uber wants to roll into a new city, they basically have to hit a few buttons. That is why one company is destroying every city’s taxicab commission.
  - jcm
    
    I’m pretty sure the DC Taxicab Commission is trying to do exactly that. It might very well suck, but they’re giving it a try, anyway.
    .
    I’ll bet they’ll still charge that stupid dispatch fee, though.
    - anon
      
      It will suck. They will fail, now with less dignity.
- Taxi App
  
  Actually the app “Curb” works great for booking a taxi ahead of time. I have used it in DC to make sure I had enough time for a 6am flight out of DCA, and didn’t want to chance someone from uber or Lyft working. As well in other cities, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, and LA. And haven’t had a problem any of the places.
  - anon
    
    You’re a little confused. Curb (formerly known as TaxiMagic) is an app that schedules you to drivers just like Uber and Lyft. You can hail a taxicab from Uber, and you can hail a black car from Curb. They aren’t mutually exclusive, other than the fact that Curb lets you schedule ahead of time (which I assume is a feature Uber might roll out at some point) and Uber allows anyone to monetize their car/driving through UberX (which is what Curb directly competes against when it advertises it “connects you to safe and reliable rides”).
    .
    The other value-add of Curb is that it allows you to pay in cash, which is pretty much an anti-feature if I ever heard one.
  - anon
    
    actually, their idea of a reservation is not actually a reservation. They fail to tell you this. (Think the seinfeld episode about car rental reservations). Then they leave out to dry with no way to get to the aiport b/c they car pickup reservation was only a request, not a reserveration, even though the email says it is a confirmed reservation. I absolutely will not use them ever again.

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