Taxicab

Howard Community College's Student-Alumni Arts will present Hellcab, a play by Will Kern, from Dec. 6 to 15 in the college's Theatre Outback, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. The play follows a day in the life of a Chicago cabdriver just before Christmas, with vignettes of more than 20 of his fares - represented by members of the HCC student and alumni ensemble. The production contains strong language and mature subject matter. Performances will be held at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

For those who have ridden with Baltimore cabbies who get lost in Little Italy, play the radio loud enough to wake the dead or spend a ride speaking on a cell phone, help is on the way. The city's nearly 2,000 taxi drivers will be taught and tested on basic knowledge of the city's culture, geography, economy and history, with an accent on making a good first impression on tourists. The mandatory training program unveiled yesterday is inspired not by Miss Manners but a state law that views cabdrivers as "hospitality professionals."

The cost of hailing a taxi at Baltimore-Washington International Airport is expected to rise soon to help offset the rapid rise of gasoline prices -- a business cost that cab companies say is cutting into profits and making it hard to keep drivers. BWI Airport Taxi -- the only taxi service licensed to pick up passengers at the airport -- and other Anne Arundel cab companies have asked for an increase of more than 20 percent. If approved, the cost of a 15-mile ride would jump from $19.90 to $24.55, assuming no heavy traffic slows the trip.

Thirty-three Baltimore taxicab permits were auctioned off yesterday after the companies that held them defaulted on loan payments. Nine cab companies, all members of the Royal Taxicab Association Inc., had put up their combined 90 permits as collateral for a financing agreement. When they didn't make payments on time, the financier, Medallion Funding Corp. in New York, repossessed the permits. In an auction on Jan. 13, 45 permits were sold. Forty-five more were available yesterday, but 12 were not purchased and will be offered again Feb. 2. Just as the bidding began yesterday at Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc. in Towson, a lawyer who represented the nine companies stood to protest the proceedings.

The Howard County Council approved last night a slight increase in taxicab fares and a transfer of funds to help buy 25 acres of land in Ellicott City for a new government office complex. The votes on both measures were unanimous, though western county Republican Allan H. Kittleman warned that he supported only the purchase of land, and is reserving judgment on what should be built on the acreage a half-mile from the county office complex. "It's important that we purchase this land," Kittleman said.

Taxicab riders in Howard County will be paying more for transportation soon if the county government approves a request for a rate increase.Frank Osei-Bonsu, owner of Columbia Cab, the largest operator in the county, is asking for a fare that would match the rates in Montgomery County, which are the highest in the Baltimore-Washington region.Under the requested rates, an average five-mile ride for one person with luggage would cost $2 more than the current $7.60 fare, the cheapest in the region.

Annapolis taxicab drivers are furious with an unspoken, dubious practice that they say has long been imposed upon their industry -- if they don't pay hotel valets $10 for high-paying trips to the airport, they don't get called.In a city where hotels often have no space for taxicab stands and valets know they have full control over who gets high-dollar fares, Annapolis drivers want an end to a practice that some call bribery and many say is unfair to customers who sometimes are charged more to make up for the required tip.Taxicab drivers and companies want city officials or hotel managers to intervene.

In the dead of winter last year, Gary Ricktor walked the streets of Fells Point for 45 minutes, pushing through crowds of fellow bar-goers and lost tourists in search of a taxicab.After calling one taxi when the bars closed at 2 a.m., Ricktor, 44, of Baltimore gave up waiting and walked seven blocks until he found one. It's an experience all too familiar for Ricktor and others who frequent the bar scene in Fells Point."It's really hard to get a taxi around here," Ricktor said. "My friends from New York City hate it when they visit.

City police requested help from the Maryland State Police yesterday to determine whether a mechanical defect caused a taxicab to jump a curb in Northeast Baltimore on Wednesday morning and hit five people on a sidewalk.Sgt. Mark E. Howe, a department spokesman, said the 1991 Ford Crown Victoria owned by Yellow Van Service has been impounded at a city police lot.Howe said that city traffic investigators will wait until mechanical tests are completed on the car before determining a cause.The driver, Larry Dean Hall, 43, told investigators that his gas pedal had stuck to the floor, causing the sedan to careen down a sidewalk in the 2600 block of Harford Road.

LONDON -- With a map and a motorbike, Phil Barber pursues "The Knowledge."Like thousands of other would-be London taxi drivers, Barber is up before dawn, prowling the city, searching for streets and landmarks that must be memorized.Most nights, he sits in a smoke-filled classroom, reciting convoluted directions with other students, imagining himself as a taxi driver ferrying tourists and locals through a metropolis.To become a taxi driver, Barber must acquire "The Knowledge," the ability to learn and recite about 800 routes around one of the world's more confounding cities.