Posted on December 4th, 2008 by Lormar
For those not “in the know”, there are 3 taxi companies in Austin. The largest and possibly the oldest is Yellow Cab, then Austin Cab, and finally the smallest & newest Lone Star Cab. I’ve recently had the “honor” of experiencing rides with all 3.
Yellow Cab has over 500 cabs in Austin, so of course they get the most business. The cabs are usually pretty clean for the most part, but their dispatch equipment is kind of antiquated and slow… but it works. They accept Visa & MasterCard (and possibly others) but are still using knuckle scrapers to imprint the card onto paper. Card authorizations sometimes take a while also. The drivers are generally pretty nice, but being the biggest and most popular causes their phone lines to be rather clogged during certain hours of the day, sometimes to the point of busy signals. I regularly use their services because they tend to arrive pretty quickly. Yellow Cab bought out another cab company here called Roy’s Taxi … they’d been here forever and a day, but had many of the same issues as Austin Cab does.
Austin Cab is the next oldest service. They have no credit card abilities in their cars, and they still use a CB radio for dispatching. The drivers have always been nice but having to clean what little cash I keep in my wallet out or having to have them stop at an ATM is a big nuisance. I use them as a last resort.
Lone Star Cab is the newest entry into the scene… unfortunately this also means they have the fewest cabs. They came into existence by winning when the city opened bidding for a third taxi cab service after Roy’s got bought out. Their dispatch equipment and tracking is brand new and works very well. They also have a infinitely superior and faster credit card processing system, complete with paper receipt printing. The two times I’ve used their services, the experience has been stellar. Their cabs are new, clean, and their drivers are all nice from what I’ve seen.
So there you have it. If you can get one to come, Lone Star is the best I’d say, then Yellow, then Austin Cab. Blue, Yellow, and blue being the colors for all three. The city sets the cab rates, so they can only change about once a month, but all 3 have the same exact rates.
I just wrote this to give everyone something to chew on before I get down to some more serious writing. Enjoy. 
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Filed under: Austin, Rants, Transportation
Posted on June 29th, 2008 by Lormar
Okay, everyone who isn’t blessed to have an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is IMNSHO really missing out on some great fun. Those that are should definitely check out some of their original shows. Tonight I went with friends to see a cheesy movie from the 60′s (Goldfinger, to be exact) and while it took a bit to get into the guys poking fun at elements of the movie, I genuinely had a good time and a good laugh. So, if you’ve never been to one, and live in Austin, consider going to a Master Pancake Theater performances sometime.
Also saw Wanted over the weekend. It was great. I’m not much of a movie reviewer, but if you like a good action flick, then it fits the bill nicely.
Well, most of the past 3 days has been spent keeping a sick friend company… seems I wind up doing that often these days. He seems to be on the mend thankfully, and will hopefully continue down that route.
I seem to still be rather restless lately. I’m of the opinion that it’s because I don’t seem to have anything to do that is enough of a routine to keep me interested in things…. My mind wanders alot and I frequently have trouble staying in one place… leading as i’ve mentioned before to more pacing (and unfortunately, more smoking. so much for quitting again, although I’m sure it won’t be -that- hard for me when I finally decide to… it appears to be more of a boredom thing… idle hands and such.) However, I have been able to keep myself medicated well enough to sit still and read from my book. Ben Bova has a writing style that sometimes gets on my nerves, and I do tire of the phrase “double-damned” being used so much…. it makes it seem like it was written towards the beginning of the last century to me (or something to that effect.) Maybe next time I’ll check out something from Vince Flynn. We’ll see.
That’s it, I’m signing off for now…. Please feel free, if anyone actually reads all this rubbish, to comment on it or drop me a line. -=[crd]=-
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Filed under: Austin, Life, Movies, TV, Celebrities
Posted on June 28th, 2008 by Lormar
Ugh. I tried for no less than an hour and a half today, to get ahold of a live person either at the local greyhound station or on their 800 number and couldn’t manage it with either. The local station rings and rings before finally (after about 4 minutes of ringing) transferring me to the national call center… which hangs up on you after keeping you on hold for 10 minutes or more. Absolutely lovely. Guess my sis will have to wait to hear from me on how much a trip to/from Temple is going to cost. I could use the website I suppose, but I always seem to come up with these stupid high prices that I know aren’t right. I guess I’ll keep trying and see.
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Filed under: Family, Life, Rants
Posted on June 21st, 2008 by Lormar
Well, after many years of trying to persuade her to come back, my sister has finally bitten the bullet and agreed to move to Temple.
I haven’t seen her since 2002… so I’m kind of excited. She’s trying to persuade me to hop a bus up there and visit soon. I’m half tempted… even if I don’t really care for Greyhound. But I -am- excited that she’s finally moved away from her prick of a boyfriend and some back to where she has family nearby that care.
I’ll keep this one short… Am working on a pilgrimage to H-E-Butt (a grocery chain in Texas that actually calls themselves H-E-B now… but I like the old name better.) talk to y’all later.
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Filed under: Family, Life
Posted on June 10th, 2008 by Lormar
Capital Metro has gotten the board to agree to their fee doubling in a 2-step increment. so the regular fare will go from $0.50 to $0.75 then eventually to a $1.00 fare.
They claim that they need the money. This claim is false because they neglected to report that they’ve already essentially raised their fare to $1.00 by eliminating the free transfer in favor of the “1-Day Pass” which costs $1.00 …. Their doubling of their rates will also double the money they make on day passes and monthly passes. STS will remain unaffected by these changes.
Capital Metro should not be forcing the bus riders to take up the slack on the money they’ll be losing on their new commuter rail service. If it can’t pay for itself without forcing additional hardship on the, lets face it folks, poor who ride the bus, then it should be axed like a rotting limb.
Unfortunately no matter how much opposition there is to the proposal they’ll do whatever the hell they want anyway…. That’s just how un-elected officials work. I still feel strongly that the board of any taxing authority should be elected by the people within that taxing authority’s borders, to prevent exactly what our nation’s forefathers (and everyone who lives in the District of Columbia) were so upset about… Taxation Without Representation.
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Filed under: Austin, Capital Metro, Rants, Taxes, Transportation
