New-York Tribune. August 19, 1841
CABS AND CAB-OWNERS.—We have on file some dozen communications complaining of impositions and abuse from Cab-drivers, and asking us to aid in securing redress. We would gladly do any thing in our power; but how? Merely pointing out individual offenders will not answer. Neither are appeals to the City authorities good for any thing. The law is bad enough which fixes the rate of fare for a one-horse vehicle the same as for a coach, but the construction is a good deal worse than the law. For instance: the law says a passenger shall be conveyed any distance less than a mile for 37½ cents; but the drivers so modify the law as to charge invariably 50 cents whenever called to take a passenger to a boat—no matter how short the distance. Again: if you are conveyed less than half a mile, make a call of an instant, and are driven straight back to the Cab-stand, the drivers claim the right to charge you seventy-five cents, but will sometimes forgive you a third of it! Their rule implies that if you hire a Cab and make ten calls, all within half an hour, they are entitled to ten fares, or the modest sum of $3.75! No wonder that Cabs abound—on the stands—at such prices.
Now it is perfectly idle to appeal to the City authorities to correct these abuses; if they had been disposed to do any thing, it would have been done long since. You might as well appeal to the modest, intelligent, and gentlemanly conductors of public vehicles themselves. But there are among the owners of Cabs and Coaches many honest and enlightened citizens, and we appeal to them for a correction of these glaring abuses. Their interest clearly demands it. At present, a man acquainted in our City very rarely calls for a Cab when he can possibly avoid it. In Philadelphia, the charge is uniformly twenty-five cents for carrying a passenger with reasonable baggage from any depot or landing to any point not more than a mile and a half distant. The consequence is that nine-tenths of the persons arriving there ride of course; while here four-fifths—we think nine-tenths—of those who have no women or heavy baggage with them, step off to their hotel or residence on foot. This is just what might be expected.
If the owners of Cabs will but hearken to us, hold a meeting, and establish a fair tariff of prices—say 25 cents for one or 37½ for two passengers conveyed any distance less than a mile, 37½ cents for two miles, and 50 cents per hour with one or 62½ with two passengers when employed over an hour, charging, as it just, for the time required to return to their stand when dismissed, they will make a great deal more money than now and give general satisfaction. They could stipulate an extra charge at unreasonable hours or for driving during a storm, neither of which contingencies is now provided for. They could establish a reasonable charge for stoppages, and for waiting the arrival of passengers before 6 o'clock A. M. if they chose. We assure them that, by coming into such an arrangement voluntarily, they may more than regain the popularity which the Cabs once had and now have not—why, it can hardly be necessary to repeat. If they do not choose to take this advice but prefer to let their Jehus treat each passenger as though they never expected to get another, the time must come when Omnibuses will run to the Steamboats, and the passengers, instead of walking up by the side of the empty Cabs as they now do, will be satisfactorily and cheaply accommodated.
New-York Tribune. August 24, 1841 [Added: 2014-09-24]
☞ We trust all our City friends take care to patronize the CHEAP CASH OMNIBUSES when they ride. They should make a point of so doing. To the rich, the difference in price is not an object, but it is so to others, and for their sake the affluent should mind this matter. The tickets were always an unmitigated nuisance, and what you gained by the wholesale price you lost again by losing tickets, so it came to about a shilling a ride after all. Then you generally found that the line whose stage you had got into “didn't take them,” or it was after dark, or something or other was the matter, so you would find yourself out at the elbows when you had relied on the tickets, and perhaps had no change by you. Now you take your ride, pay your sixpence, and there's an end of it, without annoyance or vexation. If our citizens will but act for the pubic good and their own, we believe the ticket nuisance and slippery prices will be abandoned within a month.
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