Yahoo Autos The Fastest Way to Get Around Los Angeles? A Motorcycle Taxi
If you live in Los Angeles and your most valuable currency is time, owning a motorcycle is perhaps the best investment of them. Thanks in no small part to the beauty of lane-splitting along freeways packed with cars being legal since 2017, it's possible to travel from South Bay to San Gabriel in under an hour, or Silver Lake to Santa Monica in 30 minutes. Then again, riding a motorcycle always comes with greater risks than driving. Are you willing to save hours of time and gallons of fuel while taking a chance on your safety?
Thomas Dubaele, founder and operator of LA Taximoto, doesn't see it in such dramatic terms. Growing up in Paris, France, Dubaele was accustomed to a culture of two-wheeled taxi services — a practice that remains healthily in place like Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport, and in cities across the globe. A 20-year veteran of two-wheeled commuting, Dubaele found the drudgery of California traffic patterns — the acceptance that 40 miles could well take two and a half hours on four wheels — to be degrading. There had to be a better way, one that was more fun, faster, and safe enough, too.
"It's very, very big in France, the motorcycle taxi thing. It's like Uber or Lyft," Dubaele explained in an interview with Road & Track. "I looked online to see if I could find anything like it in America, and absolutely nobody is doing it. So I quit my job, and I was like, 'I'm starting an adventure.'"
LA Taximoto has only been up and running for around six months, Dubaele said. The service charges a $50 flat fee, plus an extra $2.80 per mile — not cheap, mind you, but again, time is money. In many situations, the only quicker means of transportation than a motorcycle across Los Angeles would be a helicopter.
It's not the first of its kind in California; LA Taximoto was preceded by Moto Limos Club, a similar motorcycle taxi service, and Split, an independent Uber-like two-wheeled service — both of which are no longer different. How LA Taximoto is different, Dubaele couldn't really say — but his brimming enthusiasm and by-the-book attitude about two-wheeled services show his commitment to the idea.
The first step to starting Los Angeles's only motorcycle ridesharing program was trading his beloved Suzuki B-King for six cylinders of beefy Honda Goldwing glory —then painting that newly minted motorcycle taxi in Cheez Whiz yellow. Appropriate safety gear for passengers — including an airbag-equipped riding vest and a padded full-face helmet — was a requisite, as was the right kind of panniers and saddle bags. (Dubaele was particularly proud to tell me that a carry-on doesn't disqualify you from an airport pickup, as he has a specially mounted rack for roller bags.) The biggest issue, however, was making sure his liabilities were covered.
"Insurance was a nightmare to find. I hired a different company to find me insurance. They could not find me anything," Dubaele said. "Then, one agent said, 'Look, I don't work with this company but I've heard very good things and they only insure businesses that nobody wants to insurance.' It was a little tricky, but I finally got insurance with that company."
With the legalese settled, Dubaele has spent the last few months developing a clientele base, primarily of business people with no time to spare. Initially, LA Taximoto appealed to the Kendall Roy type — someone who needed to get to the airport and back as efficiently as possible, and happened upon the motorcycle taxi service online. However, his customer base has expanded beyond the mysterious suit-and-tie style.
"I have one customer who actually used me twice. She's close to 80 years old, and it was 20 years since she had not been on the back of a motorcycle. She's very fun," Dubaele said.
Another customer used LA Mototaxi when his wife was bound to be late for a fancy dinner reservation.
"His wife was at work, and yet he had made a reservation to that very nice restaurant, and she never would have made it. So he had me go pick her up at her job and bring his wife to the restaurant," he said. "She was extremely nervous because he did not tell her it was a motorcycle coming to get her. I did not know if she was going to get on the motorcycle. She was that scared. She took a good five minutes to decide if she was going to, but she said she had a blast."
Daniel Reetz, owner of Vice Chief LLC, decided to take a chance on LA Mototaxi after being served an ad for the company on Instagram and — having always been jealous of the speed that comes with lane splitting in California — decided to book it as his LAX-bound transportation. Better yet, the price for an airport ride was only a small premium over the typical Uber. It seemed like the perfect way to start his vacation, the AR/VR optomechanics designer said.
"An Uber to LAX is such a drag, sitting in traffic for an hour or more being suffocated by the smell of Little Tree air fresheners," Reetz said in a message to Road & Track. "The fresh air and 360 view from the bike is the polar opposite of that."
With little to no experience on road-going motorcycles, Reetz was particularly impressed with how much confidence Dubaele inspired in him as a passenger. Reetz even got to choose what kind of music they listened to on the ride to the Tom Bradley International Terminal: he says he had "AM" by the Arcic Monkeys shooting out of the Goldwing's speakers as they sliced up the 405 towards Northridge, with the entire 30-mile trip taking less than 40 minutes. Since then, Reetz has enlisted LA Taximoto again, and plans to use the service for his next flight.
"If you value your time at all, you get it back in spades," Reetz affirmed. "The night trip was even better than the day trip. [I] have never felt safer on a bike than smoothly driving past two fender benders and a burning car."
Reetz admits that he enjoys a "spicy fun" with a little bit of risk, and Dubaele concurs that this kind of service is not for everyone. Even so, for those willing to take the leap, Dubaele is committed to offering quick, safe transportation across the City of Angels. If it takes off, the plan is to buy another Goldwing, color it yellow, and hire a corral of riders he trusts.
"The plan is to make it, try to make it as big as it is in France. I don't know if I'm going to make it, but that's the plan," Dubaele said.
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