TaxiWiz

Welcome to the TaxiWiz blog

About the Blog

A blog for a taxi fare estimating site? Absolutely! I'll use this forum to answer people's questions about taxis and taxi fares, provide information about what's new and exciting with the site itself, and share interesting tidbits from around the taxi world.

Recent TaxiWiz Changes

It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally starting to revamp the site and add more useful information to it. The redesign, with the new News and Links sections, will hopefully make the site a bit cleaner and easier to use. I put the New York City Taxi Tips section back online, too, as it seemed helpful to people.

On the technology side, the changes keep coming. I added a tip calculator to the fare calculator, so it shows the fare plus a 15% tip, rounded to the nearest dollar. A lot of people have asked for that, and I'm happy to be able to provide it. The map now dynamically shifts to focus on the requested route, too, which I think looks a lot better. And, I think I've figured out how to include relevant tolls, too, and I'll be working hard to bring that technology live soon.

Vancouver is the latest addition to the TaxiWiz family. That brings us up to 9 cities, and I'm working to bring more cities online this week. Honolulu was the most recent request, so that should be online by Wednesday, with more to follow after that.

Q & A

I get asked a lot of questions about taxis. I'm not a cab driver--I actually started the website because I was moving to New York City and wanted to know how much cabs cost in the city. Since starting the site, though, I've learned a great deal about the rules and regulations, and have gotten great feedback from riders, cabbies, and even taxi authority staffers. So, I do my best to answer people's questions. Some of the questions I get are great, so I've decided to share some of them here in the blog. If you've got a question about taxis or taxi fares, drop me a line.

MaryAnn writes to ask if she could get a taxi to take her from JFK to Coram, NY. Aside from maybe flying into Islip instead of JFK, it's a great question. Coram is way out on Long Island, and is not part of Nassau county. So, cabbies are not required to go there--they can validly refuse the trip. If you can find a willing driver, the fare must be agreed upon at the start of the trip, and paid at the end of the trip. While it's only a 60 mile drive, that's a heck of a cab ride.

Parting Thoughts

I read a lot about taxis and taxi fares, obviously. I get more Google Alerts on Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars than you can imagine, and I see a lot of news articles about fares being raised across the world. Unfortunately, I also see a lot of articles about taxi drivers being assaulted, robbed, or just plain duped. So please, next time you go to take a taxi, be friendly with your cabbie, smile, and let 'em know you appreciate them giving you a ride!

posted by Mike DeGraw-Bertsch @ 4:13 AM