Public Subsidized Debauchery or Good Public Policy?
I began my new career last night as a cabbie. No tears, please. It's not a step down from the classroom in terms of salary, and it's a lot less stress than teaching. But that's not what I came here to talk about.
Santa Fe has an interesting program which is subsidized by taxpayers. It's called Safe Ride. The city will pay for your cab on Friday and Saturday nights after a five dollar deductible for any ride within the city limits. The only rule is that you can't use the service to hop from one bar to another. The idea is to keep drunks off the road by subsidizing their transportation. Sounds innocuous enough, right? Before we answer the question, let me tell you about my first night on the job.
The night began with all traffic inbound from hotels and neighborhoods to bars and clubs. Things changed around 11:00 PM when bartenders and bouncers began calling us for service. My first call turned out to be a pair of drunken old broads in their sixties. Aside from the stench (all drunks reek after a binge) they were compliant and they tipped well. My second fare consisted of rowdy college kids. I had to use my classroom voice to quiet them down and they stiffed me. As the night proceeded my passengers became increasingly inebriated. I turned down one fare when the client decided to have a chunder in the gutter before boarding. Not in my cab, buddy, you're on your own. By the end of the night my riders were fully debauched. On my last run a young "lady" attempted to perform a carnal maneuver on her boyfriend. I told them to stay belted or I would drop them on the side of the road and eat the fare.
Drunks are nasty, obnoxious, and malodorous. So, are we encouraging debauchery or providing a valuable service in the name of public safety? I don't think there's any right or wrong answer. What say you, brothers and sisters?
BTW, I won't be working the drunk shift again. It's daytime driving for me from here on.
- Comment (45)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments:
Mar '11
Re: Public Subsidized Debauchery or Good Public Policy?
You didn't mention what the free market restrictions are on taxi cabs. Instead of subsidizing rides, maybe less regulatory policies might reduce prices and increase taxi availability. Might not be advantageous for cab companies and taxi drivers but then free market principles do put a crimp on the beneficiaries of fixed prices and closed markets.
Mar '11
Re: Public Subsidized Debauchery or Good Public Policy?
1) There is no reason that neighborhood bars would not be frequented by neighborhood residents and there is good reason to think that this would have a number of salutary effects on both the drinking culture and on civil society. I often wish that the American drinking culture had more in common with the pub culture of Ireland.
2) Empower the owners of such establishments to decide who they serve and who they don't serve by keeping excessive regulation out of the saloon.
3) Empower the cab driver to make decisions about who rides in their cab.
4) If a locality decides to create a Safe Cab program, I have no problem at all with that locality doing as its residents please and paying for it through a liquor tax or an additional small fee for an establishment to get a liquor license. It's only when it becomes a mandated State or Federal program with increased taxes and regulations that I become queasy. The people using the program also tend to be the people ultimately paying for it at the local level.
Dec '10
Re: Public Subsidized Debauchery or Good Public Policy?
Stuart Creque
~Paules
The economic question is whether the program helps the city collect sufficient tax revenue from the watering holes (and/or avoids sufficient enforcement costs) to pay for the program. ยท Jun 25 at 12:41pm
You would also need to factor in lost revenue from fines.
Apr '11
Re: Public Subsidized Debauchery or Good Public Policy?
I suspect the line between good public policy and bad enabling depends on how much the average cab ride costs to get the drunks home. If a cab ride normally costs 6 bucks, a five dollar co-pay means you save a buck, and your probably not subsidizing debauchery too much. If cab rides are normally $40, you're saving them 35 dollars and freeing them from the "worry" of how they get home. Plus, they'll be vomiting in your car, not the car of somebody they actually care about. Party-time!
Apr '11
Re: Public Subsidized Debauchery or Good Public Policy?
I can appreciate the argument that teetotalers shouldn't have their tax money used for rides for drunks. If the funds come out of the money taken in by liquor licenses, it would be more fair. Or maybe you allow the bars to subscribe to the service. The bars usually visited by people who aren't looking to get hammered might choose not to subscribe. Those bars that have the most appeal to the hard-core drinkers could advertise that they are members of the "Cheap Ride Coalition" or whatever they'd want to call it.