--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "pesach kremen" <royalflush2222@h...>
wrote:
Despite investigations the taxis are frequently still illegally
taking the
airport tunnel with passengers destined for the mid strip, north
strip, and
downtown. An elderly passenger revealed to me today how she was
ripped off
with a $20-$25 fare to the Stardust.
Sorry, but it isn't that cut and dried. The cab driver is going to
take the quickest route, not the geographically shortest route.
Remember that if the cab sits in traffic, the meter continues to
run. Going to, say, Bellagio via surface streets on a busy Friday
night will take at least half an hour; more than that with the
recent monorail construction which eliminates Koval as a "sneak
route". If you use the airport tunnel, you can get to I-15 and
Flamingo in 10 minutes; from that exit you can access directly
Caesar's, Bally's, Bellagio, Rio, Gold Coast, Palms, etc.
A good measuring stick would be how long it takes to get to
Tropicana and the Strip from the airport pickup point. Without
traffic of any kind, you can get there in about 8 minutes using the
airport access road (the "short" way) and then turning left on Trop.
This would be 10-12 minutes using the tunnel, and of course longer
(and more expensive) geographically. So the real rule is:
Have the cabbie take the tunnel UNLESS:
1. You are going to a property south of Monte Carlo (MGM, NYNY,
Tropicana, the Circus properties) AND
2. There is no traffic to speak of (it's 4 AM on a weekday).
Otherwise, the tunnel is faster and easier. Sometimes it's MUCH
faster. After all, that's why it was BUILT; it wasn't put there to
enable cabbies to rip off their customers!
If there had been any traffic on the Strip, your elderly lady would
have spent that $25 sitting in traffic, watching the meter tick away
while the cab sits there, idling. On a busy night it can take an
HOUR AND A HALF to traverse the length of the Strip, and from the
airport to the Stardust is at least 3/4 of that distance. Maybe Mama
Crabtree thinks people are always trying to rip her off, and that
may indeed be the case, but this wasn't one of them. Oh, and
incidentally, it is NOT "illegal" for the cabbie to use the tunnel.
He is supposed to ask his passenger which way he wants to go, and
explain the choice of routes. He may also ask a passenger who
obviously doesn't know the "tunnel" from the Arc de Triomphe whether
he wants to get there as quickly as possible. I guarantee that for
someone with dollars in his pocket, having gotten off a long plane
ride, the answer will be "quickly as possible."