Race and the Zone System Controversy :: Free Essays Online

Race and the Zone System Controversy You get in the cab; you are white and well dressed showing your social status. The cab driver is friendly and takes you directly to your destination. The little map in the backseat of the cab tells you the cost of your trip; however since you, like most people, never even read it, the cabbie tells you the price, and you go ahead and pay without question. You are a resident of the District and have gone the same route many times and for some reason the price varies occasionally. You only traveled through one zone from your upper-middle class neighborhood of Foggy Bottom to Capital Hill where you go about your busy life. For you the zone system of taxicab fares is no big deal. You have the money to pay for each ride and a cab driver will always pick you up. A change to the metered system would only be a slight adjustment to your daily routine. However, other residents of the District would be greatly affected by a change to the metered system. Would a change in the zone syste m benefit the upper class, the tourists, the drivers or the lower income residents of DC? Is the city watching out for its lower income black residents? Will changing from a zone system to a metered payment system segregate Washington, DC even more than it is today? The zone system that is used today has been in effect since the Great Depression and has changed very little since then. With the zone system, passengers pay according to the number of zones they pass though with all of Downtown, the Mall and Capital Hill encompassing one zone. DC is the only major city that still utilizes this zone system; there are only a handful of areas that continue to use the system and all are smaller towns without the tourism that DC has. Hanbury president and CEO of the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation stated that the, â€Å" hospitality industry, which employs more than 260,000 individuals in the Washington area pumps fourteen billion annually into our economy† (Hanbury). Having the second largest taxi industry in the country supports the substantial tourism in DC; the taxi fleet is second only to New York City, with a fleet of over 6000 cabs and 8000 drivers.