Results tagged “taxis”

Last June, we almost jumped into that Yellow Cab (with its rooftop ad for flights to Heathrow) just to escape the gloomy weather. That was then--the climate has changed. Last night, emerging well-fed but late from Pearl in Bellevue, we found we'd missed our ride back to Seattle. We'd taken Sound Transit over, but now the prospect of a bus ride seemed overwhelming. Three taxis stood in line outside the Westin. Normally it's a $35 fare but we had exactly one $20 bill in our wallet. "Belltown for twenty bucks?" we asked. The first cabbie, understandably, refused. Second one glowered briefly and muttered, "Twenty-five." Third one reflected a moment, then said, "Get in." Twenty minutes later we were home. A parable for getting along in today's economy, perhaps?

Seattle 911 asked the SPD if walking home drunk was legal (it is) and got a really good tip in return: through a service called Anna's Ride Home, thirty bars in town can offer free cab vouchers to drunken patrons in need. You just ask for a voucher, and the server fills out a slip with your address and gives it to the cab driver. Eventually, the bar and the Anna Armstrong White Foundation split your bill. Though it would be a bad idea to go out on the town planning to abuse this service to get home, Anna's Ride Home is a fantastic alternative to driving drunk. Even Vern Fonk thinks so. Thanks, SPD, for the helpful reminder as we head into the drinking holiday season!

Summertime lunch (pasta, Frascati) with our Paris Pal, and Seattlest carries on about the failures of Velib as if it were the end of Western Civilization. (Velib is the city's brand new, one-way, hourly bike rental program; see "Paris When it Fizzles" entry on our other blog, Cornichon.) When we pass a Velib "station" near the Arc de Triomphe, we triumphantly demonstrate that American credit cards won't work. Then Paris Pal swipes his Amex...the gates of Paradise swing open and a 3-speed bike is released from its stanchion. Blazer and shoulder bag into the bike's basket, and we're off in the mid-afternoon sun, no helmet (this would never fly in Seattle), down the bone-jarring cobblestones of the Champs Elysées, right at Le Fouquet's, past the George V and the American Cathedral down to the Place de l'Alma and across to the Left Bank, passing directly above the Princess Di crash site.

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on.

As usual, Seattlest has donuts on our mind. Since we are compelled to endure that barbaric time of day known in some parts of the world as have been thinking about them too.

In non-holiday tree related Port news, all of the Seattle-Tacoma International Taxicab Association (STITA) taxis will run on compressed natural gas by this summer (the press release says "Aug. 31, 2006" but we're guessing they meant 2007). In fact all of the sedan-style STITA cabs already burn natural gas. The Port had to hunt around for sedans that use the alternative fuel, and purchased a bunch from California fleets that were retiring the cars. Ford stopped making CNG Crown Victorias in 2004 ("Who Killed The Compressed Natural Gas Car?"), but there are companies out there that convert standard petroleum cars to CNG.

As a public service announcement, we wanted to let you know it's okay to hail a taxi in Seattle. If you always thought it was, go about your business. Nothing to see here.

Q: What's up with gas prices? They shot up after Katrina, then they went back down again, but now it's ridiculous!

Gothamist posts on the capture of a NYC perv thanks to Little Brother and a camera phone. They also scour the city for vodka martinis and Shamrock shakes and spot the friend from the Wonder Years at a city law firm. New York police think that Littlejohn is their man.

The next time you put on makeup in the back of a cab, or make out back there, or light up a bowl, or break down crying, or make funny faces behind the drivers back, or knife him remember you're being recorded by the taxi cam. Over the last few months all 643 of Seattle's taxis have been outfitted with security cameras that snap a picture every few seconds. The article in the P-I doesn't mention what happens to the pictures once they're taken, but we assume that they're sent via wireless to a dispatcher or something? Is it someone's job now to watch 643 video monitors? Or are they just stored in the car until a cab driver turns up robbed?

No longer can the outrageous price of gasoline be routed around by taking a cab. Seattle taxi drivers asked for and received a one dollar surcharge on all rides originating in the city of Seattle or at SeaTac. The extra dollar is said to be a temporary affair that will be in place until such time as gas prices come back down to earth, a time that Seattlest estimates to be somewhere between when the Seattle real estate bubble bursts and world peace is achieved. More than likely the surcharge will go up to $1.50 which will happen, according to a City of Seattle press release, when the price of gas stays above $3.40 for 14 days.