Houston taxi riders are about to see their meters spin a lot faster. On Wednesday, City Council signed off on roughly a 28% hike to the city's maximum taxi meter rates, resetting what cabs can legally charge for trips inside the city limits. The vote at the Dec. 17 meeting bumps both the initial charge when the meter clicks on and the per-mile cap, a move city staff say responds to higher operating costs and replaces rates that had not been updated in several years.
New meter caps and what changed
The new ordinance rewrites the meter math. After the first one-eleventh of a mile, the maximum rate is now $2.96 per mile during the day and $2.97 per mile at night. The initial one-eleventh-mile charge jumps to $3.72 in the daytime and $4.72 at night.
After that first fraction of a mile, each additional one-eleventh-mile increment is capped at 27 cents, and waiting time stays put at $24 per hour. Altogether, the tweak works out to about a 28% increase in meter rates, according to Community Impact.
Where the change came from
The fare hike is wrapped into an ordinance that amends Chapter 46 of the Houston Code of Ordinances, updating both taxicab rates and broader vehicle-for-hire rules. The City Secretary's meeting packet for Dec. 17 includes the motion reports and a redlined version of Chapter 46 that council reviewed before the vote. The full item and its attachments are available through the official City of Houston meeting portal for the Dec. 17 session.
What riders will feel
For riders, the bottom line is simple: trips will cost more. Drivers can now charge up to about 65 to 66 cents more per mile depending on the time of day, and the steeper price on that first one-eleventh of a mile is set to make short hops noticeably pricier.
That first-segment jump is likely to hit hardest on quick downtown rides and airport runs, where the initial meter segment makes up a bigger slice of the total. As reported by Community Impact, the new fare structure could tack on several dollars to many common trip lengths.
Competition and next steps
City staff noted in the council packet that vehicles for hire are still free to charge less than the new maximums if they want to stay competitive with transportation-network companies such as Uber and Lyft. The higher ceilings are optional, not mandatory, giving cab companies and drivers room to undercut the cap to attract riders.
Officials with the Administration & Regulatory Affairs Department met with industry stakeholders earlier this year to talk through the request for higher maximums, and the ordinance reflects the recommended rate limits that came out of those discussions. The motion report and the redlined Chapter 46 remain in the council packet, posted in the city's official record for the Dec. 17 meeting on the City of Houston site.
Council's vote raises the ceiling on what cabs may charge, but individual companies and drivers can still set lower meter rates if they choose. For now, Houstonians should brace for higher listed prices on metered taxi rides and can dig into the council packet for the full ordinance text and detailed rate tables.
