beyond the elbow room of quagmire
So I had the choice between renting a car, taking public transit, or using taxis while in BOS, I hemmed and hawed, whatever that means, and finally decided on taxis.
Parking at the hotel would cost 24$ per day, add to that the cost of renting a car and now it would be more expensive to rent a car than it would be to take taxis. I read about paying taxi by CC and apparently there have been quite a number of complaints about Boston taxi drivers who do not want to accept payment by CC even though they have been compelled to by the taxi companies.
I'm torn on this too, on the one hand, when I use a credit card it eats more into the cabbies take home pay as he will have to pay the 5 or 6% fee on the transaction out of his income. On the other, I'm the consumer and I should be able to pay using whatever means I like.
The part of me who wants to always be considerate of others wants to pay cash for all of the taxi trips so as to appease the drivers qualms. The part of me who wants to have an easier time of travelling while in Boston would prefer to pay by CC.
It looks like it should be about 50$ from the airport to the hotel, and then about 20$ each way for hotel to the Newton Campus.
So my plan, when I arrive there tonight, is to queue up in the taxi queue and speak to the dispatcher, letting him/her know that I will not accept a cabbie who gives me a hard time about paying by credit card, and see what he/she says. Then, when I get to the hotel, I'll call a taxi company and ask for a driver to come and get me each weekday morning and that the driver must accept credit card.
I'll have to see how all of this goes, I'll be sure to let you know.
In other news, I was in the St. Patrick's day parade here today. That's a story for another post.
4 comments:
I'd go by taxi too. Public transport can be unreliable and driving in a strange city can be somewhat scary.
I thought the expression was 'hummed and harred' whatever that means.
Depending on your hotel location, the MBTA works rather well.
Getting lost in Boston is inevitable, so the cab is a lot more reliable. But you can mix the T and the cabs, no need to do an either/or.
Where is your hotel, anyway? How late are you getting in?
F/U reply: no problem whatsoever with the CC in the taxi, it even cost less than the taxi fare estimator predicted. It may have helped that we were driving in Sunday post 9PM traffic (of which there was hardly any).
Deb - I'm not totally against public transit in foreign cities, I've done it before with moderate success, but then, I was also younger at the time.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hem+and+haw
http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/humming+and+harring.html
I guess either would do.
Z: I replied in your blog about the location.
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