Fare’s Fair?
Tuesday 27th June
The fairest way to share a taxi fare with multiple destinations* is:
As a people leave a taxi which set out carrying a total of b people, they should take the current meter reading, m and each pay an amount equal to m/b.
Discuss.
(*assuming a mostly linear route, so that the taxi is not going out of its way for the multiple drop-offs)
I don’t think it works.
If two people share a taxi and one gets out while there is £5 on the meter and the other gets out when there is £10 on the meter then the first one pays £5/2=£2.50 and the second one pays £10/2=£5 making £7.50 in all and leaving the taxi driver £2.50 out of pocket.
Rich
27 Jun 06 at 3:32 pm
Maybe you need a second stage that scales the sum of all the parts derived from this process back to the total amount.
Rich
27 Jun 06 at 3:33 pm
The second guy also pays £2.50 when the first guy got out; One person pays £2.50, the second pays £7.50, making £10.
I’ll pack me coat.
Code Monkey
27 Jun 06 at 4:36 pm
Ah yes… you’re on to something…
At each point before someone gets out, the current fare is shared between everyone present… hmm….
stu
27 Jun 06 at 4:38 pm
The trouble is that when someone gets out, the ratio should be recalculated for the remaining people. If 1000 people get in a taxi and drive £1 worth of distance, then 998 get out, then they pay £998/1000 between them. the fare is only 0.2p short. If you then drive for £10 worth of distance, then person 999 gets out, they pay £11/1000, or 1.1p. If they drive for another 2p worth of distance, the hapless person remaining pays £9.99 despite having nearly the same journey as cost his “friend” 1.1p
sweavo
27 Jun 06 at 5:05 pm
oops I think they pay £10.01 or something
sweavo
27 Jun 06 at 5:06 pm
They should each get their own taxi to avoid arguements. Or walk.
Lisa
27 Jun 06 at 5:20 pm
I think it’s an interesting issue because if you know the final fare and the intermediate fare points, you can probably calculate accurately and easily.
However, you don’t know the final fare at each of the points where people get out, so they have to either owe the money or determine an amount on the spot.
Note that at this point they’re also drunk, otherwise they would have driven.
stu
27 Jun 06 at 5:25 pm
Ooh I know!
Building on what Code Monkey said:
At stop one, everyone in the taxi divides up the fare evenly between them and then someone gets out.
At stop two, everyone left in the taxi divides up the difference in the fare between stops one and two evenly between them and then someone gets out.
And so on.
It’s the additional fare between stops n-1 and n that needs to be split evenly between the current taxi residents just before someone gets out.
Rich
27 Jun 06 at 5:28 pm
Actually I think that’s quite obvious if you consider each leg of the journey to be a seperate taxi ride. It’s obvoious that everyone in the taxi for each leg should share the cost of that leg between them.
Rich
27 Jun 06 at 5:31 pm
Taxi’s are a rip-off. Anyway, who pays the tip?
Omally
27 Jun 06 at 9:51 pm
Prepare spanner for launch……… 3.2.1.Launch.
What if the first people to be dropped off, caused an excessive diversion….. That means the cost of continuing on from the first stop to the second stop will cost more than going from the start to the second stop direct…… surely they should contribute to that as well?
“Roger, the spanner has cleared the tower.”
But of course this should never happen as when (A to B) + (A to C) is less than (A to B to C) you get separate taxis.
So assuming that A to B to C is the cheapest method then the costs should be split in the same proportions as (A to B) and (A to C) so everyone saves the same proportion of money.
This of course would require you to know all three costs in advance.
How about the old favourite, the most drunk or unconsious person pays?
(The idea being they have no idea how much they have spent anyway)
Why is code monkey handing me my coat?
Grom
27 Jun 06 at 9:59 pm
Well, we’ve already assumed away from diversions.
Erm… so yes… I think I agree with everyone.
That’s the taxi from Quorn sorted in October then.
stu
27 Jun 06 at 10:08 pm
This is all too much for me… I think I’ll get the bus instead…
Mr Hedgehog
28 Jun 06 at 7:26 am
*is with Mr Hedgehog on this one*
DoGGa
28 Jun 06 at 8:59 am
Buses don’t run at 2am.
stu
28 Jun 06 at 9:01 am
Darn!
DoGGa
28 Jun 06 at 10:26 am
I don’t blame them i don’t run at 2am either
grom
29 Jun 06 at 11:48 pm