The conventional wisdom has always been that flying from New York to Los Angeles is both the fastest and, often, most inexpensive way to get between the two major American metropolises. What’s amazing is that no one seems to have done the rigorous work of actually testing this theory. Is empiricism dead? Do we merely accept feelings as facts now? The scientific method must be upheld, which is why we bought a real, albeit heavily used NYC Taxi for $800 on Copart (our partner in this journey), got a working taxi meter set to NYC rates, and are now driving across the country from New York City to Los Angeles, California.
New York City taxi rates are built around the concept of driving slowly. A majority of cab trips occur in Manhattan, which is a large and irregular grid that features traffic lights on almost every corner, ringed by crowded highways. The city’s taxi rates are built to reflect this reality, and charge for time or distance depending on which is most relevant.
It would be unfair to the cab driver not to charge while the cab is not in motion, because the cab driver is also stuck there. At the same time, when the cab is freely moving, it’s not fair to the passenger to charge for time. This setup creates a negative incentive for the driver to move quickly. That’s how the logic of the NYC cab fare, published in full here by the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission, has come to exist.
How We Are Calculating Rates
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Here’s NYC cab fare rates currently:
- $3.00 initial charge.
- Plus 70 cents per 1/5 mile when traveling above 12mph or per 60 seconds in slow traffic or when the vehicle is stopped.
- Plus 50 cents MTA State Surcharge for all trips that end in New York City or Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange or Putnam Counties.
- Plus $1.00 Improvement Surcharge.
- Plus $1.00 overnight surcharge 8pm to 6am.
- Plus $2.50 rush hour surcharge from 4pm to 8pm on weekdays, excluding holidays.
- Plus New York State Congestion Surcharge of $2.50 (Yellow Taxi) or $2.75 (Green Taxi) or 75 cents (any shared ride) for all trips that begin, end or pass through Manhattan south of 96th Street.
- Plus MTA Congestion Pricing toll of 75 cents for Yellow and Green Taxi for the area of Manhattan south of and including 60th Street, excluding the FDR Drive, West Side Highway/Route 9A, and the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel connections to West Street. For more information on the MTA’s Congestion Pricing toll, please visit: : https://new.mta.info/tolls/congestion-relief-zone/taxi-fhv-tolls
- Plus tips and any tolls.
- There is no charge for extra passengers, luggage or bags, or paying by credit card.
- The on-screen rate message should read: “Rate #01 – Standard City Rate.”
- Make sure to always take your receipt.
In order to simplify this a little bit, our taxi meter is coded to follow the basic rules here, which are a $3 initial charge (which we charge at the start of every day), and the $70 cents per 1/5 mile above 12 mph or every 60 seconds when crawling in traffic. At the end of the trip, we’ll also add the standard fees. Given that we’re not in the city, we’re not going to include the rush hour surcharges.
We started our trip yesterday in the Bronx, which means we avoid specific Manhattan-based fees, but do pay to cross the George Washington Bridge. In order to track cross-country tolls, we’re using an EZ Pass and will add up all the tolling costs for various roads (yesterday we took the Ohio Turnpike) at the end of the trip.
We Got Our Taxi Meter From The Best
In order to be completely fair and above board about this whole project, we purchased a period-correct 2030R Pulsar model of taxi meter from Al of Taxidepot, who is one of the most respected experts on the subject in the entire world. He trained in Sweden on taxi meters and has been operating within the world of taxis since the 1970s. I’ll write more about him and his collection in the future, but he made sure we not only had the correct taxi meter, but one that would display the proper NYC taxi rates.
You can see the taxi meter above as it was being tested and calibrated by Jason. Since it’s charging roughly $3.50 per mile when we’re on the highway, this starts to add up quite quickly. We’re taking both photographic evidence as we go and, because the thing tops out at $999.99, detailed written notes for the journey every time it resets. This is science after all!
How Much Do You Think This Will Cost?
We’ll put our total amount in a post at the end of the journey, so here’s your chance to guess what the total will be (no calculators allowed for this quiz!). Jason already gave a hint this morning of what a single day looks like, so you can use that in your calculations. There may be some Easter Eggs along the way as well in our social media posts, but we’ll try not to give it away.
Put your guess for the total amount (fees + fare + tolls) and I’ll send a t-shirt and some other cab goodies to the person who gets closest to the total amount before EOD on Sunday. If the person who guesses closest is a member, I’ll also comp a free upgrade to the next level of membership for a year (so a Cloth will become a Vinyl, a Vinyl a Velour, and a Velour an RCL). If the cab breaks down, we’ll multiply what we have by the remaining time and mileage to determine it, but it’ll be fine.
Let us know what you think in the comments!
It’ll be a lot. More than the cost of the cab.
$23,430.85
$18,199.19
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
$17,707 – if it’s less my tip is whatever it takes to make the total exact, if it’s more I’m disputing that portion of the charge with my credit card provider to make the total exact. Either way I nailed it to the penny and I’m looking forward to my new Velour benefits, including a drawing of my old FC RX-7 (it was a S5, make sure to get the taillights right)…
Fun, not at all pedantic point: it’s taximeter, pronounced ‘tax-immetter”. Taxi refers to the whole vehicle by synecdoche (a “taximeter-equipped can”. The online sources claim it’s from the medieval Latin ‘taxa’, for a tax, plus the Greek-derived “meter”.
Outside of the fact that it’s still taxa in Scandiwegia, I don’t believe that. Who mixes Latin and Greek? Okay, a lot of people. But why not say it’s just the Greek taxis+metros, a meter of position, arrangement in ancient Greek, and in modern Greek (cf. Kalos taxidi, ‘have a good trip’) a trip-meter?
So your car is only a taxi if it’s got a taximeter. Otherwise, it’s a fancy livery cab.
Well, that sent me down a rabbit hole of French newspapers and journals. Here’s what I could determine. Indeed, it was a Germanic invention called “taxameter” for a meter that determines the amount to charge. While there were attempts in the 1890s, the first successful introduction was in Paris, on 1 July 1904. At that point, the most functional product was of German manufacturer, and most of the jokes published in Paris in the following months used “taxamètre” and featured prostitutes. But already there was discussion about whether to use taxamètre or taximètre, and, by the end of the year, the decree (possibly the académie française or the Compagnie générale des voitures, or maybe the Frenchman Richard Popp’s 1902 patent and successful taximètre) was to call it a taximètre. Still, the debate raged, with arguments on both sides, and even theater pieces, where a woman dressed up as a taximètre would sing “taxi, taxa, taxi, larira!”
London followed Paris, requiring all of its for-hire cabriolets to be equipped with a taximetre by 1 July 1907.
And so, we got taxicabs and taxis and cabs. And the etymology to ‘taxare’ is only partially the case. ‘Taxi’ is a wilful attempt not to be ‘taxa’. Whether that’s because of a new etymology, like using ‘ordinateur’ instead of ‘computer’, a branding exercise (‘Cheez Puffs’ instead of ‘Cheese Puffs’), or just anti-Germanism, is still not clear to me.
It’d make a fun piece, even if you had to censor some of the French drawings for showing too much ankle or nipple.
I’ll wager it will cost you $15,085.30 to get from NYC to Los Angeles. However if you are looking for a number including the trip from NC to NYC to LA, then my wager increases to $17865.80. Is this a guess that gets closest to the number without going over?
I’m going with $13,737.
I’m curious to know what the actual cost to a cab company would end up being on this trip, since of course the cabbie has to sleep and eat (I’ve not met an NYC cabbie so this is speculation) and then return to NYC afterwards.
Would this be a profitable venture for the cab company after all is said and done with wages/fuel/time?
$17,542.50
Also, in regard to the topic statement of this article: I wish to point out that asking, “I wonder if it’s cheaper to drive there?” is emphatically NOT the same thing as asking, “I wonder if it’s cheaper to take a taxi there?”
Fees + fares + tolls = $13,298.80.
What I’m curious about is what is the next thing that needs to get fixed under an overpass or in an auto parts paring lot?
And does the meter keep running while broken down? A two hour delay could mean significant cost overuns on the estimate!
This is true. I can honestly say that I never thought about “window melting off the back door” as the next thing to fail.
My carefully calculated estimate is $18,911.82
I can already smell the rich corinthian leather heading my way…
$19,682.37 is what came up on my random number generator.
I have no idea what the “Improvement surcharge” is supposed to improve, but I vote that it shall be added to the total charge every time someone makes an improvement (or repair) to the poor Nissan. Heck, let’s add it every time an improvement (or repair) is made to the people driving it as well!
$21,999
Imma say $19221.75
$16,750.97
I’m guessing $17,675.69
Bon voyage!
$16,900
If the meter would keep running during a breakdown, my guess would be an order of magnitude higher.
$17,787.56
$18,500.
I’m also going to guess 22mpg, and therefore 127.27 gallons of fuel.
$19001
$18,900
$25,680
19,852.23
$11,775.75