It’s not so much dis-service and safety issue – it is a matter of life and death for cabbies to service certain neighborhoods in DC, at certain hours. In many case they are luck not to be killed much less get robbed or even paid. He would do a lot more for the community if he started his own cab company, he could get old armored cars and convert them into cabs, that’s about the only way to protect you from the people he’d be ferrying around town, and he can lock them in until they pay the bill.
Oh please - people in NE and SE don't randomly start shooting at taxis, and there is violence in Adams Morgan and Dupont circle too. The much more obvious explanation is that taxi drivers want to go to dupont and chinatown because they know they will pick up an easy fare from there without having to wait for long - whereas if they go to NE or SE they are likely to have to drive back to NW without a passenger, which makes such routes less lucrative to them. But thats just a cost of doing business and in a highly regulated profession like cab driving, one that they are obliged to accept. It amounts to discrimination against people who live in less wealthy areas and it puts those residents often at real personal risk if they can't get a ride home at night.
Hats off to Daniel Hornal. He's absolutely right; the laws are there, and must be enforced. I hope he succeeds and that the conversation he begins also leads to the cabbies being better treated by their bosses and the Taxicab Commission. Right now, everyone feels like they're losing in this situation - passengers and cabbies alike - and a renewed focus on what needs to change and what needs to be enforced could benefit everyone.
Mr. Hornal, If you want to see a better service for the community go and invastigate how the d.c taxi cab commision works. You would have a better idea and understanding how difficult and hard to the drivers to work with those abusive and unprofessional taxi cab commision employee's. You will not see any significant change unless they all removed and replaced by those citizens who has a vision in the future to modernized the d.c taxi cab industry.
JT