[the urban politician]

Just curious about the sizes of taxicab fleets of various major cities/metros in the US and around the world.

While I'm sure that New York and London have about 50 godzillion cabs, does anyone have some actual counts? How about other cities? How does your city stack up?

[Marcu]

Just curious about the sizes of taxicab fleets of various major cities/metros in the US and around the world.

While I'm sure that New York and London have about 50 godzillion cabs, does anyone have some actual counts? How about other cities? How does your city stack up?

I'm also curious about rates. Not just the rates cabs charge customers, but rates cities charges cabs for livery licenses.

[VivaLFuego]

In terms of numbers, NYC has about 14,000 licensed taxis, Chicago has about 7,000...most other major U.S. cities are in the 1-2,500 range.

i.e. Chicago actually has the most medallioned taxis per capita. Though NYC goes through the roof when you also include limo services and other hired livery cars. The distinction here is that only the medallioned taxis are allowed to pick up passengers hailing on the street.

I know Chicago's pull fare is $2.25, and I forgot the exact incremements but I think its $2.00/mile plus some other fee for each minute spent sitting in traffic idling.

It's worth noting that our 7,000 taxis are actually quite an inadequate number during the morning rush hour...I've had to wait 30 minutes at Clark/North for one before because they're all taken farther north. (of course, any other time of day my average wait time to hail a taxi is literally, no exaggeration, about 30 seconds)

EDIT: "The initial entry, sometimes called a "meter drop" or "flag pull", is $2.25 regardless of distance traveled. Each additional fraction of a mile charge is $.20 for each additional 1/9 of a mile. Additionally, each 36 seconds of time elapsed, known as "wait time", is $.20. This charge is in place to ensure the driver still makes money if the cab is stuck in bad traffic. There is a flat fee of $1.00 for the first additional passenger and another $.50 for each additional passenger after that unless the passenger is under 12 or over 65 years of age."

An interesting study on taxi rates and service levels: http://www.schallerconsult.com/taxi/trb04.pdf In a nutshell, saying that the number of taxis provided/required is particularly associated with the quantity of no-car households, transit utilization (high transit usage = more cabs), and number of airport trips (he hasn't quite figured out cause/effect here, and says so....really all he has shown is a correlation, but it's still interesting),

[Cirrus]

DC cabs are odd for two reasons:

1. They operate on a zone system instead of a meter system.

2. I believe (though have not confirmed) that there is actually a law somewhere that forbids cabs to be yellow. Even the "yellow cab company" has orange livery.

http://www.dcyellowcab.com/images/sorder2.jpg

[Evergrey]

Dayton, Ohio has 117 licensed taxicabs.

[seaskyfan]

The current limit in Seattle is 667. This article was in the Seattle P-I yesterday:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/313687_taxis30.html

Monday, April 30, 2007
Last updated 12:43 a.m. PT

Longer wait times for taxis could mean city needs more cabs
By SCOTT GUTIERREZ
P-I REPORTER

Rebecca Bell prefers to take a taxi at night or when she's lugging materials from her pottery class on Queen Anne.

Partially blind, she relies on cabs and buses to get around, calling a taxi two or three times a month.

They arrive quickly at her University District apartment, she said, but the past few times she's called from a Northgate park and ride, she waited by herself -- for about 30 minutes.

"There have been a few times where they didn't come for a while," said Bell, who in general does not consider her wait times overly long.

"Usually, I'll call again in 15 minutes and a couple of times they say, 'We're really busy right now and it could be a half-hour.'"


On average, taxi users in 2006 waited more than a minute longer than the previous year for a ride. And the average wait time has risen annually since 2003, according to the city Consumer Affairs Unit's annual report released in 2006.

The difference might not seem like much, but city officials said it could mean there aren't enough cabs on the streets. and they're considering whether to issue more taxi licenses for the first time in 17 years But many cabbies fear more competition and said there aren't enough fares to support more taxis.

"I think there are more than enough taxis in the city. The existing taxis are having hard times making money," said Wessen Darge, a 15-year driver dispatched through Orange Cab.

But the city report showed the average wait time for a dispatched cab last year was 9 1/2 minutes, up from just above eight minutes in 2005, and 7.7 minutes in 2004. Wait times ideally should not exceed 10 minutes, according to the report, and although some cabs arrived within five minutes, others took as long as 20.

With the city packing more residents into downtown, and Seattle's economy and tourism rebounding in recent years, the city likely will need more taxis, said Craig Leisy, the Consumer Affairs Unit manager.

The question is how many more to add without financially damaging the industry -- and so the result isn't just more cabs stuck in traffic, Leisy said.

The city analyzed cab response times -- the period between when a cab is computer-dispatched to when the driver activates the meter -- since 2003, when most cab companies moved to computerized dispatching. The report also considers annual fare totals and revenue miles traveled, information that taxi companies are required to provide from taximeters, Leisy said.

The data are not always perfect but still offer the most useful benchmark, Leisy said. The report doesn't include data on "bingos" -- the industry term for someone who hails a cab from the street, or "time calls," when someone books a cab a day or several hours in advance, he said.

For disabled or elderly people taking cabs from outlying parts of town, or Medicaid patients who rely on cabs to get to appointments, the longer wait times are especially frustrating.

Hopelink, a social-service agency that matches Medicaid patients with cabs or bus passes to get to medical visits, has received more complaints recently about late taxis, said Lynn Moody, Hopelink's director of transportation.

The agency books up to 27,000 cab rides a month under a contract with the Department of Social and Health Services. It is one of the larger business accounts for cab companies.

"When someone is late, they're late to a medical appointment, and from our perspective, any of those complaints are significant, whether they're small in number or not," she said.

"I just think people really underestimate what role taxis play in transportation in the community," she said.

The City Council froze new licenses in 1990, setting the limit at 667. The moratorium was part of several measures to improve rates, service and accountability after a failed experiment with deregulation in 1979, Leisy said.

So many new cabs flooded the market with deregulation that many reliable operators could no longer profit, he said.

Right now, 643 cabs are licensed in Seattle, along with eight special wheelchair-accessible taxis.

The city could issue the remaining 24 through a lottery. In addition, a fixed amount of licenses could be issued each year, which would need the City Council's approval, Leisy said.

"We would have no problem finding people who are interested," he said.

But many cabdrivers doubt the city needs more licenses. They fear less business with more competition and would prefer the city address other needs such as installing more taxi stands, which could help get cabs to passengers more quickly.

Many drivers don't own their taxi and pay as much as $1,300 a month to lease from the license owner.

Terry Davis, acting director of the Allied Cab Drivers of King County, said he doesn't want more cabs, but would be more amenable to issuing peak-hour licenses that would allow extra taxis during the busiest times of day, but not during regular hours.

"I don't think we should be increasing the number of licenses until we can better promote the business and get more use out of the cabs," said Davis, who works for Orange and cites a burgeoning for-hire Town Car business as new competition.

"You're going to have too many out there going after the same piece of the pie," he said.

Darge blamed more inexperienced drivers for driving up response times. Plus, many customers aren't ready to go when cabs arrive, he said.

The largest cab dispatch companies in Seattle are Yellow Cab, Orange and Farwest. Managers disagree on whether the data show a need for more taxis.

One Farwest manager, who asked that his name not be used, said on some days he has to turn down as many as 100 customers around the county, in part because so many cabs are devoted to customers with business accounts. About 90 percent of fares come from business accounts, industry representatives say.

Another manager said cabs are increasingly scarce between 2 and 6 p.m., in part because many drivers are Muslim immigrants who break in the afternoon to pray. But he's uncertain if more taxis are necessary.

Even if wait times are increasing, taxi service is vastly improved from 15 years ago, when seats were dirty and taxis took an hour or more to get to you, said Mike Weisman, an attorney and consumer advocate. He'd like to see Seattle more like New York, where someone can easily flag down a cab from the street.

The Ballard resident still takes cabs to the airport for frequent business trips, and the taxis are much more reliable than before, he said.

"Anybody that rides in a cab in the city today will have to admit they're in recent-model cars and the drivers are polite. We have room to improve, but I think it's been a huge improvement," he said.

Cabs need another license to operate in King County, which has 502 active licenses and a limit of 561.

ON SEATTLE TAXIS

There are 643 licensed cabs in Seattle and about 1,500 licensed for-hire drivers.
Total estimated fare revenue for Seattle cabs in 2006 was $63,153,474, up from $56,208,460 in 2005. The increase was partly because of a rate boost. The estimates are based on a sample of taximeter readings.
On average, cabdrivers annually grossed $49,000 to $59,000, and typically paid $15,000 to $18,000 for cab leases, $8,800 to $10,600 for fuel costs, and about $1,000 for dispatch fees, according to the Seattle Consumer Affairs Unit's annual report.
Annual fees for taxi licenses in Seattle and King County cost $600. Licenses are transferable, meaning they can be sold privately. As neither the city nor the county have issued new ones since 1990, active licenses have appreciated. They can sell for as much as $175,000, based on potential income owners could earn from leasing their cabs.
P-I reporter Scott Gutierrez can be reached at 206-448-8334 or scottgutierrez@seattlepi.com.

[PhillyRising]

I don't know how many Philly has...but they are pretty scary to get into. I'd rather walk.

[BnaBreaker]

I don't know where to find official tallies, but the last unofficial estimate I saw for Nashville was 700.

[mersar]

Calgary is under 1000 I believe, but there was also a severe shortage of about ~200 drivers at the end of last year (no mention since, but with the current labour market I doubt its changed much). And only going to get worse with a potential (and very likely) transit strike starting next week.

[CanadianCentaur]

Edmonton has a limit of 1,185, and the actual number is likely a bit below that. It sounds like a lot, but with the city's population growth already in high gear and a terrible public transit after hours, it's not enough. I've heard of people having to wait up to over 2 hours just to get a cab.

To make matters worse, a new taxi service based out of Leduc catering to passenger wanting to get to/from Edmonton International Airport has cropped up, known as Airport Taxi. And right now, there are a lot of very angry Edmonton cabbies because Airport Taxi is picking up passengers within Edmonton city limits, when it's not allowed to, because it's not based in Edmonton itself. Edmonton cab drivers have been known to harass and insult Airport Taxi drivers and even passengers over this.

[alleystreetindustry]

according to wikipedia's page on 'taxi cabs of the u.s', there are..
1.) 13,087 on nyc
2.) 7,000 in chicago
3.) 2,300 in l.a
4.) 2,245 in houston
5.) 1,600 in atlanta

[SHiRO]

Around 3000 taxicabs in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (743,000).
And 1370 taxi companies.

http://www.os.amsterdam.nl/pdf/2006_factsheets_4.pdf

[theWatusi]

I don't know how many Philly has...but they are pretty scary to get into. I'd rather walk.

I was in one about two weeks ago. My cabbie made Travis Bickel look like a nice, sane guy.

[Minato Ku]

15,000 taxi in Paris and its inner suburbs (6 million inhabitants)

http://www.taxis-de-france.com/historique/20.htm

[West_aust]

According to Bureau du taxi et remorquage de montreal, there is 4445 taxi in Montreal (population around 3 millions)

[Xelebes]

=====

Outdone.

[Building@HK]

Hong Kong (pop. ~7M)
18,138 taxi cabs
Red ones run in the city, greens ones in the suburbs (New Territories), and blue ones on the island of Lantau.

http://www.td.gov.hk/FileManager/TC/Content_276/taxi_l.gif http://www.td.gov.hk/FileManager/TC/Content_276/greentaxi.gif http://www.td.gov.hk/FileManager/TC/Content_276/bluetaxi.gif

[fflint]

San Francisco has 1,381 taxicabs. We would have more based on demand, but the supply of medallions (taxi licenses) is restricted by the city in an attempt to inflate drivers' pay.

http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedimages/taxicommission/linetaxis.jpg
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedimages/taxicommission/linetaxis.jpg

San Francisco taxi fares:

First 1/5th mile or flag
$3.10

Each additional 1/5th mile or fraction thereof
$0.45

Each minute of waiting or traffic time delay
$0.45

Airport Surcharge
$2.00

-No Luggage Surcharge
-Passenger Pays Bridge Toll(s)
-Drivers May In Advance Collect Fare For Trips Out Of San Francisco Except to SFO and Oakland Airport

[Chicago3rd]

^^
Interesting...I always thought they controlled medallions so that they could inflate the owners value of the medallions ? I know in Chicago.....and use to be SF.....medallions prices would go up even though the cities had a tight reign on the fares....so drivers got less because they had to pay the owners more. So the city wins when they raise the price for the medallion and the owners do...but I think the drivers suffer.

[cslusarc]

There are 643 licensed cabs in Seattle and about 1,500 licensed for-hire drivers.

What do you think of the ratio of 2.33 licensed cabbies for each cab? Is this number appropriate? Should it be higher?

[seaskyfan]

^ I would expect more cabbies/cab - I know a lot of folks do it part-time.

[ChrisLA]

according to wikipedia's page on 'taxi cabs of the u.s', there are..
1.) 13,087 on nyc
2.) 7,000 in chicago
3.) 2,300 in l.a
4.) 2,245 in houston
5.) 1,600 in atlanta

Then there are probably another 2,300 illegal or unlicensed cabs around LA.

[J. Will]

Toronto has enough taxis so that most of the time you can walk to any major street, hold up your hand, and have a taxi in under two minutes. Some of the time though (like late Saturday night in the Entertainment District) it can be harder to hail one because they're all taken.

You never have to call a cab downtown, or in the surrounding 60-80 square miles. I don't think I've ever called a cab in fact. Even at 3am you can just walk to the nearest major street and flag one down within a few minutes.

Of course being cheap I very, very rarely take a cab anywhere. It's usually when I'm with other people. Even at 3am I'll usually just wait for the bus. It helps that we have a solid grid of 24-hour transit here.

[LyndaleHoosier]

I believe just over 400 licenses in Minneapolis as it is governed by the city. This will go away in 2011 and it will be a total free market, I believe.

Not sure for St. Paul.

[Cirrus]

Do most city's have one licensing agency that covers the whole region? In DC every county-level jurisdiction has its own, so if anyone manages to find a number for “cabs in DC” (such a list I’ve never seen), it wouldn’t accurately reflect the region’s fleet. There are a LOT of cabs in the more urban suburbs - Arlington, Alexandria and Montgomery County especially. Montgomery’s fleet alone I believe is pushing 500.

[ChrisLA]

Do most city's have one licensing agency that covers the whole region? In DC every county-level jurisdiction has its own, so if anyone manages to find a number for “cabs in DC” (such a list I’ve never seen), it wouldn’t accurately reflect the region’s fleet. There are a LOT of cabs in the more urban suburbs - Arlington, Alexandria and Montgomery County especially. Montgomery’s fleet alone I believe is pushing 500.


I suspect there are multiple licensing agencies, especially in the large metros such as DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. Here in LA, there are numerous cab companies, and because many suburbs are actual cities and have their own goverment each I'm sure have their own license. If I remember correctly the license posted on the side of the cabs I see in the city of LA says its licensed by the city. Long Beach has its own, and Beverly Hills I think may also have its own since its not a part of the city of LA. I would also suspect the same is the case with Washington DC suburbs. So the count we're seeing listed of the areas cabs probably isn't the entire fleet in either metro.

[fflint]

^Same for the Bay Area--many different licensing agencies. The SF figure is only for the 49 square miles of SF city proper--Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, etc. all have their own separate taxi fleets.

[fflint]

Just read today that SF's fleet has been expanded 50 cars to 1,431 taxicabs.

[roadwarrior]

Just read today that SF's fleet has been expanded 50 cars to 1,431 taxicabs.

If the expansion were 500 cabs, rather than 50, maybe that'd make a dent in the cab shortage.

[fflint]

^Yeah, but that kind of increase isn't going to happen anytime soon, as you probably know...