Fenty: Love/Hate

Fenty announced today changes to the new meter regulations. Okay, so the whole Attorney General thing is unforgivable, but he definitely recovered some ground on this one:

* The flag drop is being reduced from the proposed $4 to $3.
* There will be no rush-hour surcharge.
* There will be no additional-passenger surcharge.
* Fares will not double during “snow emergencies.”
* No fare between points in the District can exceed $18.90, plus surcharges.

Basically, this addresses the problems with the original proposal. The high fare drop would have made short trips just as outrageous as they are under the current system. And the rush-hour surcharge would make absolutely no sense in a time/distance system, where the cabbie is already compensated for heavy traffic.

So, it looks like we're actually getting a real cab system in DC! This is all supposed to start on April 6. I can hardly believe it...

Once again, Fenty is a paradox. Sometimes he acts like a third world dictator, doing whatever the hell he wants, public opinion be damned. The school closings, replacing the AG with his buddy, firing the guy who wrote the handgun brief. All crazy. Then he goes and does this. Actually listens to the citizens. We wanted meters, we got them. We bitched that the proposed fare structure made no sense, he fixed it. Truly, he is a man of mystery. Or maybe he's just using stuff like this (which isn't a big deal at some level, but everyone actually cares about) to win brownie points so we'll let him have his way on the other stuff...