Estimate Your Cab Ride

There's a little trick we've picked up. Walk a little bit and shave $5 off your cab fare. Not only are you more likely to find an empty cab on Tremont Street at 2 a.m. but there will be less navigating one way streets than if you try and pick it up from Faneuil Hall af bar close (when everyone else is looking for a ride). Of course it's not foolproof, luckily most of the Boston/Somerville/Cambridge area is still within walking distance (and certainly within biking range) to shave some cost off your Friday night.

Cabbies have a bad habit of not knowing their way around Boston all that well, especially if you ask to be dropped somewhere in JP that isn't on Centre Street. Cab fares can rise real quick as you get caught at streetlights, turn down a street that is only met by one-way's going the wrong way. It's hard to ever estimate a fare. There's a website now that will give you a fairly good idea of how much you can expect to pay for a ride. Enter your start and end address – or simply click the map for the start and end points – TaxiWiz will calculate the driving route and estimate the cost to get you where you're going. $15.91 seems about right for a ride from the Garden to JP's Hyde Square, add some increments of $.30 for waiting at lights and tip and you'd better make sure you've got at least a $20 in your pocket for the trip. The kicker here is that the ride from North Station to Stony Brook will only cost you $2 (without the CharlieCard) if only the T kept running until bar close. TaxiWiz is available for seven cities, but don't look. You'll start crying when you find out cab rides are almost always cheaper in other cities.