Talk:Taximeter

Hi! My name is Eloy and I'm from Argentina. I'm the autor of several contributions to this article in the Spanish Wikipedia. I'm trying to translate it, but I don't know some specif terms and I wish that you help me.


 * I don't know how are called the increments, I wrote cards (it's the literal traduction of fichas).

Also I wanna add a table with some differents reglamentations around the world. --Eloy 21:30, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

I'm a taxi driver in San Francisco, so I can help a bit. I noticed that the article seems to be local to Argentina. I'll fix some of the grammar. I noticed the reference to "cards", which made no sense to me, but ficha can be translated by other words; I think of the word more as "file" or "record", although that doesn't make much sense here, either; I looked it up and it could also be "token", which makes more sense. However, "increment" is the only term I can think of being used in regards to taxis. We have a "rate card", which displays all the rates, but is not attached to the meter.

In some places meters are not used. In the District of Columbia, the city (Washington) is divided into "zones", and you are charged according to how many zones you pass through; this way, a taxi can pick up additional fares along the way and charge each separately. Unfortunately, some drivers try to drop off passengers on the side of the street that is more expensive when dropping on the frontier of two zones. That would be equivalent to a metered driver taking the "scenic route". --Nike 02:49, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

The appropriate word meaning increment is "drop", also called "Chute" in French Washington DC is no longer in Zone.

Baron von Thurn und Taxis - invented the "taximeter"
Quote: [A taximeter is by definition what makes a ‘cab’ a ‘taxicab’. Fitting of a taximeter was made compulsory in London from July 1907. The modern taximeter was a German invention and its name comes from its inventor, Baron von Thurn und Taxis. It was first used in Berlin but soon adopted worldwide. .. .. Early taximeters were totally mechanical in operation and the clock that recorded waiting time had to be wound by hand. [:UNQUOTE

[Source : http://www.lvta.co.uk/history.htm 49.195.158.107 (talk) 02:53, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Some technical details would be helpful
How does a taximeter work?

I know it's a combination of distance and time, but how do the technical details affect the final fare?

As a practical question, and leaving tips aside: Will a taxi driver stuck in traffic be compensated completely for the extra time he spends getting to his destination? How do the time "pulses" and the distance "pulses" going into the meter interact? If a driver moves, say, 10 meters forward in heavy traffic, does that reset the time to zero?

Is there a difference in the fare if the cab is moving slowly but steadily in heavy traffic vs. stop-and-go bottlenecks interspersed with higher-speed travel?121.163.188.1 (talk) 11:36, 5 August 2017 (UTC)


 * The likely reason this question hasn't been addressed is that since (most? all?) modern meters are electronic, the algorithm used to compute price may be quite arbitrary. It is possible for it to not only include things the computer knows internally (such as the day of week, time of day, duration of trip (so far), taxes and fees, etc.) but also externally sensed information (such as location, streets & bridges used (tolls) (for instance airports often require a surcharge), speed, time not moving, number and identity of zones traveled through, etc. etc.). There's no reason, for example, that the algorithm couldn't charge more for a ride in the rain, but generally costs are regulated by the local jurisdiction (city or county in the USA). IF the question is what is *customary*, then that will be jurisdiction dependent (and one I can't answer). Some larger cities may have online resources describing what costs a passenger may incur.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.130.71.156 (talk) 22:32, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

Image of a much older taximeter
I notice that all of the taximeters currently displayed in the article are pretty modern. Here's a decent image of an older one, if anyone would like either to add it or to substitute it for one of the modern ones. - Jmabel &#124; Talk 04:09, 21 November 2023 (UTC)