Posted on March 17, 2010 by Miller
This evening I had the best cab driver ever, leaving the SXSW Interactive festival. Driving through the streets of Austin, he asked if we had ever heard the story behind the many moonlight towers that light up the city. What follows is HIS account of how the moonlight towers came into being, with links I found that have a more detailed account of the story and the history associated with them.
Austin was home to the first recorded serial killer. In 1884 a series of murders prompted the city to install these towers to better light the city and improve public safety. Most of the towers still exist today (map).
The killer would be on the loose for the better part of 1884 and was linked to the murder of several women who were servants throughout the city of Austin.
Though the perpetrator was never caught, many suspect that his rampage continued across the Atlantic. In 1888 a killer also brought panic to the city of London. We know him as Jack the Ripper. It turns out that there was a very interesting connection between those London murders and Austin murders in terms of the victims and the methods used. But the connection goes deeper. One of the suspects in the London murders was a cook who went by the name Maurice. As it turns out, he had previously been employed at The Pearl House – in Austin. He left the city in January of 1886, the murders ending just 3 weeks prior to his departure.
There’s a great (but long) piece about the Austin murders written by Katherine Ramsland that you can read by clicking here. It goes into much more detail than I’ve put down or that our cab driver shared with us. Big props to Austin for staying weird and having cab drivers well versed in local history.
Posted on August 4, 2009 by Miller
There’s been a small taxi driver who has been getting a lot of press today on everything from the Huffington Post, to NPR about his novel business idea. Since June, Recession Ride Taxi has been picking up riders and letting them pay what they want. No strings attached. They also have a small cooler in the car where patrons can grab a cold beverage – again, paying whatever they want. Oh, and they have punch cards. Every 7th ride is free.
So how is this working out? Eric Hagen, who is the taxi operator, says he’s never been shortchanged. Of course, people have had a lot of questions, but things have picked up considerably after a quiet couple of weeks. According to the article in the Burlington Free Press, Hagen used to work at the NY Stock exchange and that experience made him look for a different way to do business.
At first I thought it was just a cool and different business idea, and a little gimmicky. But Hagen insists that empowering the consumer to make a decision on cost has created a system that leaves customers feel valued and is profitable. I agree. But I think what this is really about is trust and the building of relationships. He trusts that if given quality service, customers will recognize this and compensate him fairly (interestingly enough, Chris Brogan had a similar experience recently). Eric is a Trust Agent. And trust scales. Trust spreads. And trust is based on relationships. With both parties vested in providing value to the other, I’d argue that this has the potential to create a much more loyal customer base. It creates evangelists, if only out of the initial curiousity.
Anyway, cool story, cool concept and I hope it works out for Eric. Well done.
So, do you think this is a sustainable business model? More importantly when was the last time a business melted your face with their service and earned your trust? I want to know. Show some love and leave a comment.
