Credit Cards and Chicago Taxi Cabs, Together At Last

Photo credit: Anthonia Akitunde

While I still think Chicago is the best American city, one thing New York has going for it are the touch screen consoles located in the back of every cab. Passengers can watch local programming, see the route the driver is taking to their destination via Google Maps and, most importantly, pay for their trip with a credit or debit card.

For years many Chicagoans who wanted to pay for a cab ride with a credit card were met with hostility, claims the driver's machine "wasn't working" or plain refusal of service. A report in the Chicago Tribune yesterday said this gap in service was the number three complaint regarding Chicago taxi service and the number one complaint in the taxi industry.

Thankfully plans to install those consoles in up to 2,600 Chicago cabs are underway. Only 30 cabs currently have the technology installed. The article did not say when the installations would begin.

After hearing the news through Chicagoist, I asked my cab driver this morning why drivers were so weary of accepting credit cards (after he initially said he didn't take cards only to change his tune).

"If you give me a credit card, I have to take it," said the driver of Yellow Cab 4378 (his license was covered up).

But, he went on, it can take a while for the cab's credit card reader to authorize a transaction. If the purchase does not go through long after the ride, the driver has to pay for it out of pocket.

Also credit card companies take 5 percent of the fare total whenever a card is used, cutting into the driver's profits, according to the Tribune's report.

While the new technology won't address that concern, drivers will benefit from placing control in the passengers' hands. Officials predict drivers will less likely be targeted for crime since they'll have less money. Because of the gratuity calculator included in the console, drivers saw a 7 percentage point increase in tips, from 15 percent when passengers paid in cash versus 22 percent with their cards.

As for us passengers? The ride back home after a long night just got a hell of a lot easier.

Chicago Memory #2

Last night, I was on the 22 Clark bus heading towards the Gold Coast to meet some friends for a going away gathering at the Hunt Club. My iPod headphones were snug in my ears, blaring the newest Brazilian Girls CD, "New York City." I went into commuting mode; my eyes glazed over and neighborhoods began to melt into each other as the bus hurtled down Clark Street. The drunken frattish antics of Wrigleyville gave way to the easygoing feel of Belmont, people passed by, stumbling, laughing, walking, waiting.

A woman got on at the Clark and Belmont stop, wearing a large, red men's coat too heavy for the muggy weather outside. The words "Phila" were printed in various fonts and sizes all over it. She staggered and swayed as the bus lurched forward, standing beside the bus driver and rummaging for change.

She plopped down next to me, her bare legs splayed in the aisle. Foam was gathering in the corners of her mouth as she spoke to herself. She bent over in her seat and began feeling around under her seat for something.

"Did you drop something?" I ventured.

I bent over in my seat as well and after feeling around for a bit, produced a quarter and a metallic red and gold curlicue bow, the kind you put on presents. I offered both to her outstretched hand. The bow matched the jacket she was wearing.

"Thank you, girl," she said. She leaned back in her seat. She reached inside the jacket, the tops of her barely covered breasts visible, and produced crumbled bills. A twenty. A five.

"Hey!" the bus driver yelled over her shoulder. "The woman that just got on. This is as far as I'm going to go if you can't find any change."

The woman ignored her and stared at me. The bus continued down Clark. I avoided her gaze.

I think she said something about how nice I was, and reached out to tuck my braids behind one ear.

"You should do your hair like that. Behind one ear," she smiled, her eyes unfocused. More foam bubbled around her lips. "It's sexier."

"Oh, ok," I smile back.

She continued on, slurring. "I do hair like the Africans, but I don't charge as much. I do that," motioning at my curly braids, "for $30!"

"$30!" I say. "Wow, that's cheap."

"Give me your number, I'll call you and you can let me do your hair."

"Um..."

The bus driver stops the bus again. She's exasperated. She probably has to do this more than she would like. "Excuse me! The woman who just got on. There's another bus 2 blocks behind me! You can get off on this stop, find your change and get on that one."

The woman ignores her again, and pulls out a slip of paper and a broken eyebrow pencil. She attempts writing on it, then tries to bite off the pencil to produce some lead.

"Just give me your number," she pleads, her eyes looking over my face frantically.

"Um..."

The bus driver has now stood up. As the woman stands I notice all she's wearing underneath the jacket is a tank top and underwear.

"God told me to treat women the way they treat me." She smiles at me but glares at the bus driver as she stumbles off the bus. The doors close as she attempts to offer me one last piece of advice.

"Don't let men treat you..."

The bus moves down Clark and I smile ruefully at the people sitting next to me. Ashamed that I'm ashamed of my kindness, ashamed of the woman's state, ashamed of what the people were probably thinking of her and of me, and ashamed that I was ashamed of their thoughts, real or imagined.

Set Yourself On Fire

While I was driving this morning, I heard writer and former Chicagoan David Sedaris on Eight Forty-Eight and laughed the entire way to work. Definitely take a listen. He (and his sister, actress Amy Sedaris) is incredibly funny and irreverent, making us laugh at old people losing their dentures in shrubbery or a foreigner crying on an airplane next to him in his essays. He's come under fire for the "truthiness" of his work—though much of his work is listed as nonfiction, he fully acknowledges his tendency to exaggerate—but I call those people haters and continue to laugh out loud.

He's reading from his latest book, When You Are Engulfed In Flames, at Barbara's Bookstore (1218 S. Halsted) tonight. If you attend, get their early: Sedaris can definitely pack a house.

Perilous Biking

I've recently been considering getting a bike. My new neighborhood is going to be a lot more biker friendly, it's a great way to exercise, and I no longer fear the opinions of militant and mean hipster bikers. However, there has been an increase in cyclist deaths in Chicago as the weather warms up. Two have occurred within this past month and who knows how many others before them; the cover of one of Chicago's newsprint tabloids focused on the rise in biker deaths.

While driving to work this morning and listening to NPR, there was mention of the recent spate of cyclists deaths. Last night, Chicago bikers held their own "Ride of Silence," a nationwide event where bicyclists visit the sites of bicycle-related deaths throughout their cities. Eight Forty-Eight did a segment focusing on friends of fallen bicyclists and biking activists creating monuments in the form of "ghost bikes."

Ghost bikes are stripped bikes (so people won't deface them for their parts) painted white and locked up at the site of a biker's death. To listen to Eight Forty-Eight's story and learn more about ghost bikes, click here.



(A Ghost Bike for Tyler James Fabeck, killed two days ago. Photo credit: Howard Kaplan.)

News in Commuting and Music!

Now that I consider $3.67 for gas to be cheap (in comparison to $3.99 at the gas station across the street from my apartment), I think its time to get back on the bus and trains. According to NPR, taxi drivers are feeling the crunch as well. The Chicago City Council has passed a ruling, mandating that a $1 surcharge will be added to cab fare to subsidize the costs of gas (only when gas is over $3.50 for seven days straight). However, a group of taxi drivers are suing to have this ruling overturned in favor of a fare increase per mile, citing this to be a long-term solution in the face of the economic and energy crunch.

And the days of seeing three buses back-to-back is hypothetically over. The CTA has unveiled their website, CTA Bus Tracker, which provides people on the go with estimated travel times for bus routes (14 routes are available now with more to come in May). The site has an estimated time arrival section as well as a bus location map, and comes in a text version for mobile devices.



And the purveyor of mass-hipster fashions, Urban Outfitters, offers up their summer mix online. Plenty of electronic blips and whistles, breathy boy voices, and drum machines for all (all tongue-and-cheek snarkiness aside, they have gathered a pretty good mix)!