Just a Cab Ride Away
The urban renaissance in Hoboken and downtown Jersey City has resulted in oft made comparisons to New York's outer boroughs (If you haven't figured it out by now, New York's Sixth slyly refers to Jersey City / Hoboken as the fabled Sixth Borough). Yet there is one obstacle that separates New Jersey from the Five Boroughs: taxi cabs.
Step into a cab (literally, inside), and the driver must by law whisk you away to any of the five boroughs, Westchester, Nassau, or the area airports. A needle may be easier to find in a haystack than a yellow cab in the outer boroughs, but a driver can't refuse to take you there once you get in. Not so with trips to Hoboken or Jersey City.
Travelers heading to the west bank of the Hudson River can be refused service, and even when cab drivers agree, the charges are discretionary. In some cases, cab drivers charge a flat fee around $50. In other cases, drivers cite a fare of twice the meter plus the tunnel toll. Either way, consumers headed home to New Jersey pay about twice the cab fare as those headed to western Brooklyn or Queens.
In fairness of course, yellow cabs can't pick up passengers in New Jersey, making every mile out of the Holland Tunnel cost them twice as much. But "double meter" fares usually include the entire trip, not just the New Jersey portion. That's a great deal for those hailing a cab from canal street, but not so much when coming from upper Manhattan or an outer borough.
No part of Hoboken or downtown Jersey City is more than 2 miles from the Holland tunnel. Cabs cost $2 per mile making a $50 fare seems more like price gouging than a reasonable assessment. But there is one thing most cab drivers do in New Jersey: fill up on cheap gas. New York gas costs more than gas in New Jersey, largely because of taxes, and the difference can be twenty to thirty cents a gallon.
Either way, Hoboken councilman Ruben Ramos wants all this to change, according to Hoboken Now. He wrote a letter to the commissioner of the taxicab and limousine commission "regarding exorbitant fees for taxi rides from Manhattan to New Jersey municipalities." Not that we disagree with his sentiments, but we don't see the commission doing anything about it.
Step into a cab (literally, inside), and the driver must by law whisk you away to any of the five boroughs, Westchester, Nassau, or the area airports. A needle may be easier to find in a haystack than a yellow cab in the outer boroughs, but a driver can't refuse to take you there once you get in. Not so with trips to Hoboken or Jersey City.
Travelers heading to the west bank of the Hudson River can be refused service, and even when cab drivers agree, the charges are discretionary. In some cases, cab drivers charge a flat fee around $50. In other cases, drivers cite a fare of twice the meter plus the tunnel toll. Either way, consumers headed home to New Jersey pay about twice the cab fare as those headed to western Brooklyn or Queens.
In fairness of course, yellow cabs can't pick up passengers in New Jersey, making every mile out of the Holland Tunnel cost them twice as much. But "double meter" fares usually include the entire trip, not just the New Jersey portion. That's a great deal for those hailing a cab from canal street, but not so much when coming from upper Manhattan or an outer borough.
No part of Hoboken or downtown Jersey City is more than 2 miles from the Holland tunnel. Cabs cost $2 per mile making a $50 fare seems more like price gouging than a reasonable assessment. But there is one thing most cab drivers do in New Jersey: fill up on cheap gas. New York gas costs more than gas in New Jersey, largely because of taxes, and the difference can be twenty to thirty cents a gallon.
Either way, Hoboken councilman Ruben Ramos wants all this to change, according to Hoboken Now. He wrote a letter to the commissioner of the taxicab and limousine commission "regarding exorbitant fees for taxi rides from Manhattan to New Jersey municipalities." Not that we disagree with his sentiments, but we don't see the commission doing anything about it.
Labels: Transportation
6 Comments:
It would be really helpful if our reps could work on this problem. The way to solve it is, I think, reciprocity. Let the NYC cabs legally do picks ups in JC and the Boke for trips to Manhattan. If you include Newark airport on that list, a cabbie can drop someone off in JC and continue off to EWR for a return fare. It's worth a try.
I just found this blog and I LOVE it! I'm such a JC fan and I hate when people from Manhattan think I "trekked" over to get their island. Sometimes they don't even know where it is! JC is growing and I'm glad to be a part of it.
With all of NYC's efforts on trying to reduce number of cars in manhattan through congestion price... I don't see this happening.
It's completely consistent with a desire to reduce personal car use, because a policy of facilitating taxi rides would have the effect of reducing personal auto use. many JC'ers drive into Manhattan on a Saturday night because they don't want get dinged for a $6o three mile cab ride home. I do agree though that if your goal in life is to hate on auto to the max you'll make some fairly silly policy decisions that lower quality of life.
This really is crazy given how bad the path is after midnight, nyc cabs should not be much more than $25 to JC/Hob. I understand return trips are helpful but talk to a cabbie and they will tell you they hate going to the boroughs every bit as much as going to jersey. Chances of getting a return trip in brooklyn/queens is unlikely.
But alas if congestion pricing plan shows us anything New York is totally bent on screwing the people of new jersey.
Newark? JerseyCity? the sixth borough? Please, who the hell are you freakin kidding. None of these cities have a popullation over one million. The economic and finacial background is nowhere near NYC and PHILLY ,if any economic or finacial background at all. No cultural,no well known history,no 24hr night life, none of that. Just two run down cities in between New York and Philly mooching day and night off the jobs and buisness. Now I hear northjersey calling themselves the sixth borough. If anything jersey shoud be called the "in between state". That is in between New York and Philly.
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