Three out of four locals agree: A D.C. cab ride leaves much to be desired.
A new survey of 4,025 District residents shows that 78 percent believe the District's taxi service is "fair" or "poor," and 69 percent said the District's taxis are the worst in the country.
The survey released by Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, was nonscientific, but helps bolster her case that the city's taxi industry is in need of an overhaul. Cheh, the chairwoman of the D.C. Council's transportation committee, will host a hearing Monday on cab reforms she proposed.
"There will be some kind of reform," she said. "Exactly what shape it takes -- that's the question. We have to. We have to drag this industry into the 21st century."
The survey showed overwhelming support for change, with 94 percent saying they supported legislative reform. Nearly all respondents supported two specific measures Cheh is proposing -- requiring taxis to accept credit card payments and requiring uniform cruising lights to show when taxis are available.
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The survey participants support the fare increase the city is poised to approve -- from $1.50 a mile to $2.16 -- but only if the quality of service improved first.
All 12 of the specific reforms listed in the survey won approval. Ten percent of respondents oppose requiring older taxis removed from service. That was the highest rate of opposition to any of the listed reforms.
Survey-takers even supported requiring all District taxis to be the same color, though they couldn't agree on the right hue. Yellow was tops with 38 percent support; 15 percent liked red; 11 percent wanted orange.
The month-long Internet survey drew mostly young people: 63 percent of participants were between the ages of 18-34.
Cab drivers weren't happy with the results.
"I think the survey's flawed," said Larry Frankel, spokesman for the Small Business Association of D.C. Taxicab Drivers. "It's pretty badly slanted. It should ask broader questions, which it doesn't."
DC Taxicab Commission Chairman Ron Linton said the dissatisfaction was nothing new.
"It doesn't surprise me. It's consistent with [past public] hearings, with the exception that those people who say, 'Don't increase the rates' didn't show up to our hearing on the rates," he said.
The taxi commission is set to approve the rate increase in February, though Cheh is pushing to delay that decision.
"He appears to have the authority to take these actions, but I want to talk to him about maybe slowing up a bit so we're all together on what exactly what we're going to do," she said.
