I admit, knowing this one taxi line has CC machines means it's worth me storing the number in my phone instead of looking a company up on google every time.

New York taxis are all hailed, you can't call them. Car Services you can call, I assume they all take credit cards but I don't really know.

Yay, paperdol!!

I don't think the local car service I use takes credit cards. At least, it's not obvious that they do.

The other thing is, if you're on a business trip, it's easier to get a charge put on a card than having to lay out cash and be reimbursed at some later date.

This was my main excitement last night.

Basically, I would think some cab drivers would want the credit card machines (especially ones that mostly work the airports), but they shouldn't be forced to use them, and especially not with them being tied to the GPS. Which, as noted above, isn't accessible to the driver, only the passenger and The Man.

Happy Birthday JenP!

YAY paperdol!

Coming from DC, I'm all "Dude, you've got meters, be thankful!" The crazy "zone" system means that even if you've lived there forever, half the time you don't know what the ride will cost--or what the cabbie will try to SAY it costs....

And I, too, have bacon salt, though I'm intending to mail it to a friend.

Oh, god, the first time I got into a DC cab, I though we were being kidnapped! I was in the front seat, looking at the lack of meter and not knowing what was going on.

I always wondered what was the difference between taxis and car services, which so far as I know we don't have that distinction in Boston -- there are plenty enough operated/owned cabs that are around that you can hail or call as needed.

Yellow cabs in NYC are only hailed, and are only supposed to pick up passengers in Manhattan or at the airport. In the other boroughs, if you want a cab, you're supposed to call a car service, which is not a yellow cab. You can also use car services that you call ahead in Manhattan, but they are usually nicer/more expensive, as far as I know.

In Cambridge, at least, you can't hail a cab on the street -- you have to go to a taxi stand, or call. Which caused some consternation a few years ago when another NYC resident friend and I were trying to get a cab home from a bar!

ION, can anyone whitefont the last five minutes of Eureka for me, or tell where I can find a recap? Stupid Sci-Fi.

Yellow cabs in NYC are only hailed, and are only supposed to pick up passengers in Manhattan or at the airport. In the other boroughs, if you want a cab, you're supposed to call a car service.

I did not know this! I thought it was just out of convenience. If a cab takes a passenger to Brooklyn, what is it supposed to do?

I don't know about hailing cabs in LA. I have seen it done. I seem to recall being told you weren't allowed to in Detroit. Which made no sense to me.