L.A. Taxi Riders Pay More For The Ride

Inspectors found an unusually high rate of fraud, but taxi drivers and owners challenge the findings, citing the small sample size.

1 minute read

September 26, 2006, 5:00 AM PDT

By davarnado

"Passengers have a 50â€"50 chance of being ripped off if they get into a taxi in the city of Los Angeles. Over the last two months, inspectors posing as tourists and businesspeople took 30 taxi trips. Fifteen of those trips cost more than they should have, inspectors found, and nine of the trips were more than 10% higher than expected, leading inspectors to conclude that the overcharging was almost surely intentional."

"By comparison, New York City officials say their fraud rates are less than 10%."

"Officials of the Administrative Services Co-Op, which oversees several cab cooperatives in Southern California, said the idea that half the drivers in the city are defrauding their customers is simply not credible."

Thanks to D. A. Varnado, AICP

Read the full story: Taxi Sting Finds Pervasive Fraud

Saturday, September 23, 2006 in The Los Angeles Times

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