Poll Center: Does This Map Make Sense?

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ONE OF D.C. MAYOR ADRIAN FENTY'S goals during his first 100 days in the mayor's bullpen was to improve D.C. taxi fare zone maps to make them easier for customers to understand. Unless you've never taken a D.C. cab, you know that the decades-old fare zone system &mdash and the map explaining where the zone boundaries lie &mdash can be massively confusing. So confusing that some frustrated cab riders have felt that the system is designed to squeeze more money from customers who don't know how the fare zones work.

So the D.C. Department of Transportation drew a new map to add in some major roadways and other items to make the map use a little better. When you look at the new map, you can see the additional colors and lines signifying roads. (Funny, we don't remember Connecticut Avenue meeting Wisconsin Avenue at the D.C.-Maryland line; zones 4A and 4B.).

Some might say that the new map isn't any better than the old and the real thing that needs to be fixed is the fare-zone system itself. The system's critics say it should be thrown out and D.C. cabs &mdash like their counterparts in most cities everywhere &mdash ought to use meters.

So what do you think? For today's Poll Center question, we ask: What system should D.C. taxis use to calculate fares: Meters or zones? Go vote (and comment) here and see how your fellow commuters weighed in, station by station, line by line.

» "D.C. to Roll Out Less-Confusing Taxi Zone Map" [Free Ride/Express]
» "DDOT Presents Updated Taxi Zone Map" [DDOT]