Taxis

Jimbo this is for you.

Okay folks a little something somethin’ about cabs and the city. First DC is split into zones. I think of them as 4 zones that are then split into smaller ones, but the subzone split is meaningless and only serves to confuse, so there are just 4 zones.

Please open another browser and use this link to the DC Taxicab Commission and find the zone map or open the PDF file of the taxicab map at this link. You may recognize this map from the back of a dark cab when you couldn’t make anything out to save your life. Lucky you this is your chance to see the map and figure out where those friggin zones are.

Most of Shaw is squarely in Zone 1. Zone one is from Florida Avenue and U Street and Florida again, down 2nd Street NE, then E Street and Constitution after 17th St, and then 22nd Ave NW on the west. If you stay within these borders, your fare is $5.50, tip whatever you want.

Some of you are on the otherside of Florida, that puts you in zone 2 and paying $2.10 more. If you are cheap like me and your starting point or destination is 1 or 2 blocks near or on the border, you move or stop short of crossing over. So when I’m in Dupont Circle or Foggy Bottom I make sure I catch a cab on 21st St. when heading back home.

Now I am so cheap I have only once traveled more than 2 zones, and that was a long time ago so past two zones my judgment is iffy. I gather that if you travel from zone 2D in Capitol Hill over to mainstreet Georgetown in zone 3A then your base fare is $11.40 because you might travel through zone 1 & zone 2A to get to your destination, traveling through 4 zones. Anyway the maximum that one person picking the cab off the street could be charged (not traveling during rush hour) is $17.20 if traveling through 8 zones. I’ve played with the map the max appears to be just 8 zones. You can play with the fare calculator and see what you come up with. There are other add ons. Each extra person is $1.50. Rush hour is 7-9:30AM and 4-6:30PM and that’s $1 extra. Calling the cab will cost you $2.00 if they bother to show up.

Now that you have the map, study it, use it, it will come in handy when arguing with the cabby.