Moving to Cicero NY area (Syracuse, Clay: low crime, home, transfer to)

[syracuse2010]

Hi, there will be moving to Cicero NY area (having determined it is a better place than most of Syracuse/ suburbs of Syracuse.)
My question is this: when I called the taxis that are listed in Syracuse area (even in North Syracuse) they want to charge me 20.00 minimum fare just to drive me home eg: from Walmart (total distance I am going is less than .5 mile!)
Yet they said I can go as far as far as 3 miles for still the "minimum fare" for that area which according to them is 20.00.??!
This makes absolutely no sense to me (is there anything I can do about this? Does anybody have any suggestions (other than buying another car)
Thanks for your help.
Shelly

[proulxfamily]

Cicero IS a suburb of Syracuse.

That said, it's fairly uncommon to use a taxi service here. It's not needed unless you're out late, past when the buses are running. Most people have cars and a growing number of people have bicycles.

If you don't want to use the Centro (http://http://centro.org/ - broken link)bus system, I'd advise that you either walk (half of a mile is an easy trek for most... maybe 10 minutes) or invest $200 or less into a bicycle and child-carrying trailer, which can be used for bringing home just about anything you purchase. Bicycles and foldable trailers can be stowed away on Centro buses, where there is a fold-out carrier, as well, if you're destination is a bit of a haul away from the stops.

I'm curious- what were your criteria for choosing Cicero? If you're car-less/car-free, a better choice would be a fairly self-contained village. Liverpool (13088) or Manlius (13104), for example. They're also on the Centro bus route and have plentiful nearby parks for recreation as well.

[grdnrman]

Yes. I guess that the minimum Taxi rate IS $20. I've had to use the Taxi when my car was being repaired. I don't know if you need transportation for work or just for shopping. If it's just for shopping, you may be able to schedule your shopping to coincide with the Bus Schedule. If it's for your work, maybe a friend with the same work schedule would give you a ride [.5 mile] after work if you paid them $20 - $30 a week for the ride.

Other than Dewitt, which has a convenient concentrated business district, I think your choice of Cicero is a good choice=a reasonable number of nearby stores where you can shop. When necessary, you can take the bus to places in Syracuse city. I think the other suburbs business areas are much more spread-out necessitating multiple bus rides to do shopping.

The area bus service=Centro, does run through Cicero along Brewerton Road/Rt. 11, right through the Cicero Business area & Walmart. Of course if you need a bus ride in the middle of the night, the bus service is not running. You would have to check the Centro Bus Schedule to see if a bus ride would cover the time you need the ride. The bus is a good value considering everything.

I don't think there's any other alternative except owning your own inexpensive older car.

[ckhthankgod]

I would look into the CENTRO Bus Schedules for the Cicero area too.

[syracuse2010]

Hi, actually the minimum fare for city of Syracuse is $5.00, since Cicero is not in the city limits the cabs claim the minimum is 20.00 since they are generally not in the vicinity of Cicero. I can tell you that's BS since they claim the meter is still going. Therefore I can go 4 miles down the road (the cab companies told me this) and the fare would still be 20.00.
Do you understand my point here?
But yes I picked Cicero for its demographics, low crime+ the whole slew of stores and restaurants along Brewerton Rd.
I was considering Liverpool but was told that there were no major stores there like Walmart etc only smaller type stores.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by syracuse2010

Hi, actually the minimum fare for city of Syracuse is $5.00, since Cicero is not in the city limits the cabs claim the minimum is 20.00 since they are generally not in the vicinity of Cicero. I can tell you that's BS since they claim the meter is still going. Therefore I can go 4 miles down the road (the cab companies told me this) and the fare would still be 20.00.
Do you understand my point here?
But yes I picked Cicero for its demographics, low crime+ the whole slew of stores and restaurants along Brewerton Rd.
I was considering Liverpool but was told that there were no major stores there like Walmart etc only smaller type stores.

Actually, the Liverpool area(including the western halves of the towns of Clay and Salina, along with the village of Liverpool) has those stores on Route 31 and some on Route 57. So, that could be an option as well.

[syracuse2010]

The only way around the taxi situation is to find a "driver" on Craigslist (or better yet, place your own ad in there, there are plenty of people still out of work who are willing to drive you around for a negotiable fee; you have to be very careful on Craigslist, a lot of scam artists as well!)
The bus system in Syracuse is Pitiful: For example I live in Cicero NY (nice town, northern suburbs of Syracuse, outside of city limits.) My doctors are located in Liverpool (3 or 4 miles) If I catch the Centro bus on Rte 11 to head down to Taft Rd, you would think I could get off the bus and wait for a transfer to for a bus to head down Taft RD to NE Medical Center. That is not possible here unlike most cities with a bus transfer system like NYC or Long Island: You have to catch a bus on Rte 11 heading the Wrong Direction all the way to Downtown Syracuse, then wait God knows how long for a transfer back past your starting point to wind up in Liverpool NY, probably transit time of 4 hrs One Way vs a 10 min ride by car (Yes this is retarded, but a sad fact of a poorly designed mass transit system)
"Most people in Syracuse or Cicero drive": Not everybody, this is not a fact either though the system admin of this forum may say do.. Syracuse has its pros and cons, like most places.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by syracuse2010

The only way around the taxi situation is to find a "driver" on Craigslist (or better yet, place your own ad in there, there are plenty of people still out of work who are willing to drive you around for a negotiable fee; you have to be very careful on Craigslist, a lot of scam artists as well!)
The bus system in Syracuse is Pitiful: For example I live in Cicero NY (nice town, northern suburbs of Syracuse, outside of city limits.) My doctors are located in Liverpool (3 or 4 miles) If I catch the Centro bus on Rte 11 to head down to Taft Rd, you would think I could get off the bus and wait for a transfer to for a bus to head down Taft RD to NE Medical Center. That is not possible here unlike most cities with a bus transfer system like NYC or Long Island: You have to catch a bus on Rte 11 heading the Wrong Direction all the way to Downtown Syracuse, then wait God knows how long for a transfer back past your starting point to wind up in Liverpool NY, probably transit time of 4 hrs One Way vs a 10 min ride by car (Yes this is retarded, but a sad fact of a poorly designed mass transit system)
"Most people in Syracuse or Cicero drive": Not everybody, this is not a fact either though the system admin of this forum may say do.. Syracuse has its pros and cons, like most places.

To be honest, with a few exceptions, I don't think that public transportation is good in most 2nd/3rd ring suburbs, anywhere.

To get to North Medical from Cicero using CENTRO, your best chance is to get off at Airport Plaza or Lawrence /Elbow Road. Then, walk down Lawrence to Buckley in order to get to there.

[acknight]

Originally Posted by syracuse2010

"Most people in Syracuse or Cicero drive": Not everybody, this is not a fact either though the system admin of this forum may say do.. Syracuse has its pros and cons, like most places.

In the outer suburbs, it's unmistakably true... if only by necessity. And, for the most part, unless you live in the city limits or convenient to a major bus line, it's pretty true throughout the Syracuse area. This is not a large enough market to force decent mass transit, or traffic to demand it.

And few, if any, of the cab companies around here are based anywhere near Cicero, which is why $20 minimum up there makes plenty of sense - it's not just the time you're in the car, it's the lost fares while they're getting to/from there. (And the minimum fare in Syracuse doesn't mean $5 gets you very far - the SU hill to the mall's closer to $20-30 I believe... and that's maybe 5 miles tops.)

Taxis in this market at least are not a cost effective replacement of a vehicle if you need to go places pretty regularly. They just aren't.

[dnc19694339]

Dont move to cicero without a car. Its a suburb and I would estimate 99% of households have cars. THe $20 minimum is paying them to drive from the city (where most of there business is) to your area and then drive back to the city.