The Cost of the Washington Flyer
(Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority photo)
For reasons that have never been clear to me, if you want to take a cab from “Washington” (actually about seventeen million miles from the city) Dulles International Airport you not only need to pay an exorbitant fare, you need to specifically pay the fare to a Washington Flyer Taxi. You can’t just take a regular taxi that charges a special Dulles fare. It needs to be a specific kind of taxi. As Steve Offutt observes this has weird and undesirable consequences:
According to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Washington Flyer taxis provide 2,500 to 3,000 rides per day from the airport, but only provide 300 to 350 rides to the airport. That means more than 85% of taxis return empty. It’s probably a fair assumption that a similar number of people arrive at the airport by taxi as leave, so that means that more than 2,000 local cabs drop passengers at Dulles and then drive back empty. [...]
The current situation benefits virtually no one, with the possible exception of the cab company owners, since monopolies are always a good deal for the businesses that have them. Eliminating the Washington Flyer taxi service will not change the fares paid by airport patrons: the same number of people will still be flying in and out of Dulles. Drivers, though, will save millions of dollars and thousands of hours of wasted time. It’s likely this will reduce the need for as many drivers and taxis, but taxicab drivers as a whole will collect just as much in fares while saving millions of dollars on operating costs. Reducing this waste will also reduce the pressure to raise fares on customers while introducing competition may result in better service, too.
So, yeah, this is dumb. When the current contract expires they should change things. This is hardly the most pressing issue of social justice in America (the fare is so expensive that I assume the only people taking these cabs are people able to expense the trip to an employer or client) but it’s good to get the little public policy issues right as well as the big ones. Meanwhile, one of these days the Dulles Metro extension will get built.
32 Responses to “The Cost of the Washington Flyer”
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July 17th, 2009 at 8:44 am
What hacks like about the airport line is that it’s a sure thing. As long as you’re willing to wait your turn, you’re guaranteed to get a fare, and a sizable one at that. Even in NYC, there are some cabbies that predominately work the airport for this same reason. Getting a fare in the city is competitive and stressful – just the opposite of the airport line. Yes, the Washington Flyer system is idiotic, but it does match up with some drivers’ desired work style.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Flying taxis? How very Jetson!
July 17th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Took the 5a a couple of weeks ago; it’s mostly on dedicated bus lanes so it was only a little over a half hour travel time from the airport to rosslyn at 4:30p.m. on a Friday (although it did show up 15 minutes late)
July 17th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Plus it was only 3.50 (3 bucks if you have a smarttrip card)
July 17th, 2009 at 8:51 am
I feel let down. Isn’t the most Yglesian reaction to this item to write up a post about whether it’s okay to name an airport after John Foster Dulles?
July 17th, 2009 at 8:51 am
I tend to agree with this, but it’s pretty noticeable that when Matt writes about local politics he becomes a conservative Republican in word and action. It’s always some hit on a government regulation without even a token attempt at trying to find out why the regulation is there. It reads exactly like the Republican attacks on the stimulus plan; find something that looks funny at first glance and attack without finding out whether it’s really useful.
Offhand, I don’t like the monopoly contract either (and beyond that, I’m curious why Washington Flyer doesn’t offer half-price phone appointment service to the airport, a good cab tracking system would eliminate at least part of that downtime), but it wouldn’t hurt to find out why the contract was written in the first place rather than just assume corruption.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:59 am
The biggest employer in the area is the federal government. You’re all paying when I take a taxi from Dulles.
Fortunately I don’t do it anymore. It used to be that govt employees had to take the cheapest flight available for any official travel. I’d have to fly out of Dulles because it was $10 cheaper, then submit $80 in round trip cab fare for reimbursement instead of taking the Metro to National.
July 17th, 2009 at 9:02 am
So what “personal service” do you get for $1.50?
July 17th, 2009 at 9:02 am
What would a well regulated cab system look like?
July 17th, 2009 at 9:11 am
But isn’t this true at National (I refuse to call it Reagan)as well — not the contractual monopoly part — but the cabs returning empty, which is I think the real point of the post.
When I take a cab to National, I have never seen the cabbie who drives me does get in the line at the airport to pick someone up.
July 17th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Or, perhaps, things like unquestioning fealty to regulation works best when it mainly affects other people.
July 17th, 2009 at 9:20 am
I think if Yglesias had his way people would all live in a giant cube with some kind of public transportation system to move us around. He may deny this but if buildings extended across streets that would produce a lot of pretty valuable office space. If buses were all electric you wouldn’t have pollution problems and you could have buses and trams moving around at multiple levels of the building rather than just the ground floor like we have now.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Sir Charles, even if the cabbies at National return empty (which I don’t think they do — isn’t the cab stand behind the drop-off area? So they have to circle the airport once to get in line, and you wouldn’t see them), it doesn’t matter, because National is right near a bunch of other places where they might pick up fares. Dulles isn’t near anything but Dulles, so if you’re not going to pick up a fare there, you’re driving 20 minutes back to the city with only talk radio to keep you company.
Woof, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, long-existing contracts like this can be assumed to have been given because the owner was pals with Marion Barry. I seem to remember a scandal page on Washington Flyer the City Paper did years ago, but I didn’t find it in their archives.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:05 am
“For reasons that have never been clear to me”
The Washington Flyer contract exists because the Airport Authority wanted a branded taxi fleet with drivers of uniform competence to provide “upscale” service to business travelers. DC cabs are relatively unregulated and there is no single dominant taxi company, so the state of cleanliness and reliability of the cabs, and the degree of driver knowledge, courtesy, honesty and ability, are highly variable.
The Airport Authority didn’t want to bring the urban feel of the DC taxi fleet out to Dulles. They wanted to provide a standardized premium service for business travelers and they did so by creating a dedicated contract fleet for the airport.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:10 am
people would all live in a giant cube
Resistance is futile.
P.S. The regulation identified at #7, if true, was idiotic, in my liberal opinion. (Liberals do not, in fact, have “unquestioning fealty” to regulation or anything else, outside the fevered imagination of conservatives.) There’s good reason to require the cheapest *itinerary*, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest *flight* when multiple airports are present but not equally convenient.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:14 am
A cylander would be more efficient. I’d suggest a sphere, but it would have to extend down into the Earth’s magma. That would suck for the people with sub, sub, sub … sub basement apartments. Maybe some sort of distorted spheroid…
July 17th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Woof, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, long-existing contracts like this can be assumed to have been given because the owner was pals with Marion Barry.
I don’t think the airport was ever owned/controlled by the City of Washington. It was built by the federal government and transferred to the Washington Airports Authority in 1986. It’s possible Barry got his fingers in there somewhere, but he never had official control over it.
Dulles was pretty severely underutilized for the first 20 years or so of its existence, and it was even more isolated then than it is today now that so much has grown up around it. Maybe the only way to get reliable cab service out there was to create a special purpose cab company.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I’m fairly certain that young Matt still sees everything through the lens of his Manhattan upbringing when it comes to his land use theories. I’m not so certain about the Cube, however–even Manhattan has windows.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Chris,
It has been changed to that effect. Now, you find the cheapest itinerary, and that sets your reimbursement. You then make your travel plans yourself, allowing you to pay out of pocket for more convenience. Sensible changes like these were due to Gore’s initiatives as vice president.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:26 am
These could be replaced by bigscreen TVs showing scenes of the outside world, or an outside world you desire. Just to be more realistic, all of the screens would include cameras so other people could look in.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:28 am
As far as shape for mega buildings, gravity, wind, ventilation, and other considerations dictate something like this when your footprint isn’t an issue:
Crystal Island (Moscow)
See also the X-SEED 4000 (Tokyo) concept, available through that link.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Its funny when I see “Washington Flyer” i think of the bus service from falls church, not the taxis, but that is just the circles I run in.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:44 am
See also the X-SEED 4000 (Tokyo) concept, available through that link.
Speaking of Tokyo, the taxi fare between the city and Narita Airport is around $250 each way.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Uh, considering Dulles is in Virginia, 20 miles from DC, befriending Barry would be a waste of time for the owner. It’s in red state territory, or was until the recent blue-ing of the the No.Va. ex-burbs.
July 17th, 2009 at 11:49 am
(the fare is so expensive that I assume the only people taking these cabs are people able to expense the trip to an employer or client)
Wait until you have kids Matt. It’s possible to take one small kid on one of the Vans that drop several people off, but if you have two parents and two kids going away for more than a week or so, the cab, unfortunately, is your best option. Well, if you fly out of Dulles, but of course the real best option is to try to fly out of National.
July 17th, 2009 at 11:59 am
You guys are so provincial in Washington. Lots major airports have exclusive taxi contracts. I assume this is because taxi-stand space is scarce and they don’t want the roads clogged up with 500 taxis all jockeying for passengers. It’s fine to debate whether that’s good policy, but don’t start with the assumption that it’s some unique D.C. thing.
Google will find you lots of information about it. It’s a pretty contentious issue in some municipalities.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Well, if you fly out of Dulles, but of course the real best option is to try to fly out of National.
Not as many flights. As well, if you live in the Virginia suburbs, Dulles makes a great deal of sense.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
@wahoofive – Correct! In many areas, the major airport is operated by a separate entity (Port of xxx) and they set the contracts for pickups.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
One advantage to the current system: the washington flyer cabs are much nicer than the regular DC cabs.
July 17th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
@27: If you live in the Virginia suburbs, you don’t need a cab to get to and from Dulles, and therefore, are irrelevant to this discussion.
@23: According to Wikipedia, Narita is 60 km from Tokyo, which I think is actually further than Dulles. In any case, two train lines currently stop at Narita, and a third is planned to be completed in 2010 (compared to zero and who knows when for Dulles). (Apparently it was originally planned to be served by the Shinkansen, but that was blocked by NIMBYism – not an exceptionally American phenomenon.) Rail service is reportedly faster than cabs because of traffic, so I don’t know why you would take a cab anyway.
July 18th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
The only time I flew to Narita, there had just been a (relatively) minor earthquake. They were profusely apologetic that one of the two train lines wasn’t running.
July 20th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
One reason for not opening cab market at the airport is that free market does not work for cabs. Or, the way it works is thus: city cabs go to the airport (empty) and wait in the lot for the ride back to the city. They do so because it’s a nice long big ride, so it’s worth to drivers more money than hustle for short rides in the city center. Plus, they can read a book while they wait. So the pool of cabs downtown is depleted (the cabs are in the waiting lot at the airport), and half of the cab rides to/from the airport are empty. How is the free market different from the status quo?
Regarding Narita: the road is not slower than the train. The Narita Express (the train) takes as long as the Narita Limousine (the bus line).