Business Affairs Commissioner Proposes Taxi Overhaul

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 25, 2011 2:20PM

We've likened hiring a taxi in Chicago to riding a roller coaster at Great America without a safety harness. The Sun-Times reports today that City Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Rosemary Krimbel hopes to make cab rides safer as part of the first overhaul of Chicago taxicab regulation in nearly 20 years.

Krimbel said one of the reasons taxi drivers weave in and out of traffic at high speeds like they're driving the 24 hours of LeMans is that it's financially rewarding for them:

"Meters click faster when you’re moving than when you’re standing, which means it’s much more profitable for a cabdriver to ... change lanes constantly, rather than to sit there at the light or wait for the light. We need to change that incentive," Krimbel said while testifying at City Council budget hearings.

No shit that needs to change and, if it does, expect a change in some fees, starting with a flat $1 per ride surcharge proposed last year by 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke. Burke proposed the surcharge idea as a means of getting taxi drivers to stop with the speeding and reckless driving of a few that tars the entire lot of them. That's in addition to an increase in fares that cabbies have been waiting for six years.

Krimbel is exploring other possibilities such as increasing lease rates and greening the fleets of taxi companies in an attempt to remove older Ford Crown Victoria's off the street; eliminating the fuel surcharge that rises and falls with increases in the local fuel rate; and using federal transportation funds to produce stickers reminding passengers to call 311 whenever a cabbie gets his Dale Earnhardt on.

We were taken aback to find that, even with the miscellaneous surcharges over the years, Chicago has the second-lowest taxi fares among major American cities.