Thanks to Katie for sending yesterday: “Spotted this driving around in Park View twice this morning. Apparently they are testing in DC.”

Cruise tweeted: “We’re thrilled to begin our manual data collection in both Seattle and Washington, D.C. this week.”

Techcrunch reported:

“Cruise, the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, said Monday Read More

Thanks to Clark for sending yesterday: “taxi took an unfortunate turn into some wet cement!”

Update from the Department of For-Hire Vehicles:

“The Department of For-Hire Vehicles, which regulates taxicabs, limos, and ride-hailing companies in the District, allows residents of Maryland and Virginia to operate in the District. One requirement is to display a taxi vehicle tag issued by the District. In the past, some taxicabs had tags issued both by the District and their home jurisdiction. That is why you may occasionally see taxicabs with two tags.”

“Dear PoPville,

Attached is an interesting double license plate I saw in Woodley Park area today – DC and Virginia tags…. for what the helen of troy is this?” Read More

“Dear PoPville,

I hope I’m wrong about this but I think others should be warned. I paid for two rides – one on Lyft and one with a taxi outside union station. Both were astronomically higher than they were supposed to be Read More

Thanks to Lindsay for sharing.

With driver in the car (climate controlled) I’ll allow it!

“Dear PoPville,

I have a very early flight (6am) out of DCA next week, and I’m wondering if people have recommendations for taxi companies. Since the pandemic I’ve always had problems and delays when trying to get a pick-up from Uber or Lyft that early, so I thought it would be better to schedule something ahead of time with an actual local company. I was hoping your readers might know of some good reliable companies!”

Awesome find!! “Just drop me off at the bridge, no before the bridge, no, no stop!!” Ah the good old days.

Thanks to John for sending this piece of history: “’73 Plymouth Valiant. On 28th St. in Georgetown. Street legal. Complete with zone fares sticker and insurance decal indicating it was still picking up fares in ’88.”

Sweet City Ride is made possible by readers like you!

Thanks to Will for sending from H Street near the White House: “It had NY plates and everything. No clue how it ended up in DC.”

Every now and then somebody spots one and I always just want to do a caption contest…

“Dear PoPville,

Recently, I have noticed that some DC taxi drivers have adopted the practice of blocking the passage of private car/Uber in front of the Union Station. They simply park and leave their cars, causing unnecessary traffic jam. The other night (04 May), several taxis we parked without any drivers, obstructing the path and leaving only one lane for passage.

It seems that the problem became a practice.”

Anyone else noticing this?

Ed. Note: We spoke about DC Taxis “eliminating outdated traditional meters” by August 31 back in May.

UPDATE:

“I am the owner of bay cab. This story was an account of a passenger that took a cab using my system. I am not sure of the specifics that involved the passenger. I have reached out to the passenger via email and secure message from square both. I have issued a full and entire refund to the passenger. I have asked the passenger to give me a call personally so that i could understand the event that took place to ensure that this mistake will never happen again. The success of this system is very very important to me.”

“Dear PoPville,

The DC taxi commission seems to be in the process of allowing cab drivers to use tablet-based “taxi meter” apps instead of normal taxi meters. Naturally some cab drivers are using this opportunity to scam their customers. My cabbie today put a 25% tip on my bill without being asked and got agitated when I wanted to get my emailed receipt instead of a paper receipt. Here’s why – beyond the sneaky 25% tip, the distance of my ride from the Pret on M street to the Parker Flats condos at 2nd and Elm supposedly took 2.6 miles according to this “taxi meter.” The distance on google maps is 1.9 miles for this same trip, and looking closely at the email receipt it appears that a section was “tracked” as having looped around (between 6th and New Jersey) even though we took a straight route up Rhode Island Avenue. See the screenshot of the receipt – very clearly this is a 1.9 mile route, but just as clearly this app measured it to be 2.6 miles.

Of course there’s essentially no recourse since this is a DC cab; it’s not worth my time to try to contest a tiny overcharge, so I’ll just suck it up and go back to using Uber for everything – at least Uber is easy to get a refund from if a driver tries to scam you. Big thumbs down to letting cabbies use random apps to measure distances, and strongly recommend your readers get email receipts and check the mileages if they must use “regulated” cabs instead of ride services.”