Taxi ride could soon be more taxing on wallet

Just a few years ago, someone who needed a half-mile taxi ride home from a shopping trip or a visit to a doctor's office in Charleston could expect to pay about $2.50.

By the end of this month, the same ride could cost $5.

In the latest example of how rising fuel prices trickle through the economy, Charleston City Council is considering a plea from the operators of metered taxis to raise the rates allowed for short trips.

Those who don't own a car or can't drive are most likely to feel the pinch.

Taxis frequently are used downtown and in the Charleston suburbs for trips of a mile or less, usually to get to or from a shopping area.

Someone might walk to a grocery store, for example, then come out with a few sacks of groceries and call a cab for the ride home.

The city's transportation director said taxi drivers need the higher fares because they're paying so much more than before for fuel.

Metered cab fares last were raised in November, 2005, by 50 cents a mile, also in response to higher fuel costs.

Taxis that charge flat rates also received approval then to raise fares, to a minimum of $5, and flat-rate rides from the airport to downtown went from $16 to $20.

"The non-metered cabs are already at $5, so this would make it an across-the-board rate of $5 to get into a taxi," said Hernan Pena, director of the city's Department of Traffic and Transportation.

The rate increase would apply only to metered cabs, which charge $2 for the first one-fifth of a mile and 35 cents for each fifth of a mile after that.

City Council will consider an ordinance Tuesday that would change the minimum fare to $5, but that fare would cover the first two miles.

Above two miles, the rate would remain 35 cents for each one-fifth of a mile.

The effect actually would be a small fare decrease for anyone going two miles or more, because a metered two-mile trip under current rates costs $5.15. But for someone traveling just one mile, the fare would rise from $3.40 to the proposed $5 minimum.

Pena said taxi operators also were seeking an increase in the per-mile rates they can charge, but the city is not recommending that change to City Council.

City Council's Committee on Traffic and Transportation is scheduled to meet at 3:30 p.m. Monday to discuss the fare change, in City Hall at 80 Broad St.

The full City Council will meet Tuesday in City Hall at 5 p.m.

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.