Taxis Will Cost $15 More During F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix

Though driving a taxi isn’t nearly as lucrative as driving a Formula 1 car, it will pay $15 more during the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend. The Taxicab Authority Board on Monday approved a pilot program slapping a temporary surcharge of $15 on trips between Harry Reid International Airport and three resort corridor locations for the upcoming race weekend.

ChatGPT created this illustration when asked to depict a taxi racing around the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix track with a passenger’s arm tossing cash out the window. Note that the window isn’t open. (Image: ChatGPT)

The new fares would make cab rides from the airport to locations north of Sunset Road to Tropicana Avenue cost $37, to locations north of Tropicana to Flamingo Road cost $41, and to locations north of Flamingo to the Strat cost $45.

The surcharge, automatically incorporated into cabbies’ existing meter charges, will be effect from noon Wednesday, November 15 through noon Tuesday, November 21. It was necessary, according to the board’s five-member panel, to encourage “full workforce participating by permitted taxicab drivers to provide adequate services to the traveling public during the period surrounding the Las Vegas Formula 1 Grand Prix.”

In other words, no cabbies in their right mind will want to be stuck in F1 traffic, so the fare has got to be upped to make it worth their while.

Industry representatives testified during a recent board meeting that 100% of the surcharge will be passed onto employees/drivers.

Uber and Lyft are expected to employ surge pricing during the event, meaning that the costs of their rides will be raised to increase the supply of drivers while at the same time suppressing demand from passengers until equilibrium is reached.

That’s the idea, anyway.

Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers entertainment, dining and gaming news in Las Vegas.

Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city’s history. (For “Fear and Loafing,” he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.)

Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post.

Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook.

Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.

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