I’ll go slow just in case anyone has problems following me on this story:

1. San Francisco taxi cabs are already the most expensive per mile taxis in the country
2. In 2002 they logged 1.2 million rides to SFO, in 2006 that number had dropped to 323,000 rides to the airport
3. Cabbies blame BART’s extension to SFO and, somewhat illogically, an increase in the number of taxi permits issued, a whopping 50 additional cabs
4. The Taxi Commission figures the best way to compensate taxi drivers is to increase the taxi rate, in essence impose a tax on taxi riders

Personally, I think it’s fairly implausible that 900,000 people a year are taking BART to the airport, if this were the case then BART wouldn’t be struggling to make the SFO/Milbrae extension work; it’s been plagued by low ridership since it opened. One thing I am seeing is that shuttles and hotel vans are taking up a lot of the riders that normally would have gone with taxis, not because it’s more convenient but because it’s cheaper.

SF taxis are very expensive, I took one from Market St. down 2nd St. maybe 10 blocks and it was $8. A ride to the airport is easily $25 and forget about it if you are going to the East Bay or down on the Peninsula, where a cab ride from the airport to my house is easily $50.

Having said all that, it’s fairly outrageous that taxi drivers are demanding a rate increase to compensate them, and not just to/from the airport but all over town. In essence the taxi drivers are demanding a tax be imposed on regular riders because they are no longer price competitive in one aspect of their business.