THE SCIENCE OF RICKSHAW FARE

The rickshaw: the most Bangali of all transports; not having ridden on one renders you a silly person who deserves the mockery of peers. Yet, there’s a lot of confusion as to exactly what a fair fare is. The rickshawalas don’t help matters, seeming to charge their passengers any random number that comes into their heads. We have discovered that there is in fact a method to their madness, and that if one takes into account several factors it is possible to explain the fare any rickshawala will ever charge. We present to you the Rickshaw Fare Equation, guaranteed to always work.

The Rickshaw Fare Equation can be expressed as:
Yi = Distance + Weather Quotient + Traffic Index Effect + Passenger Neediness + Passenger Wealth Index Effect + Relatability + Location Effect + µi
µi is the error term: variations in the fare due to factors we did not or cannot account for (e.g the Rickshawala’s mood). We will now discuss how these variables came to be calculated.
Distance
According Jafar’s First Law of Rickshaw Fares, rickshaw fare is directly proportional to distance. The principle is expressed in the celebrated Fare-to-Distance Conversion Formula:
Fare = 10 x Distance (in kilometres)
That is, each kilometre travelled will on average add 10 taka to the fare. Certain rickshaw-pullers operate with increments of 5 taka, but their peers whole-heartedly reject them as outliers who shouldn’t be given any attention at all.
Weather
Pagla Hannan’s Theory of It’s Hard to Cycle When It’s Wet states that fares rise during rain.  Our field researcher Wasi Noor verified Hannan’s Law at the expense of a bad cold. A derivation of Pagla Hannan’s theory, It’s Hard to Cycle When It’s Effing Hot, states that fares rise with temperature.
The Weather Quotient is an acceptable estimate of how the weather affects the fare at any given time. It is expressed as W = Rain Effect + Temperature Effect.
More exactly:
W = 10D1 + 5D2
D1 = D2 = 0, not raining and not hot. No effect on the fare.
D1 = 1, D2 = 0, raining and not hot. Fare rises by 10 taka.
D1 = 0, D2 = 1, not raining and hot. Fare rises by 5 taka.
D1 = 1, D2 = 1, raining and hot. Fare rises by 15 taka.
Traffic
Rickshaw-pullers generally charge more to travel through thick traffic. According to Lomba Sourav’s paper on Time and Opportunity Cost in Rickshaw-pulling, this is to account for the fare they might have been earning during the time they were stuck in traffic.
Traffic is measured as an index: a certain base number of cars per square metre (Banani 11 pre-Eid) is given a value of 100. Percentage differences to the base amount are then calculated; on average Farmgate has four times the amount of traffic compared to the base, giving it an index value of 400.
It is difficult to calculate the effect of the traffic index, the approximation Fare = Index value/base value is considered satisfactory by most experts.
Passenger Neediness
It has been observed by the B.S. Surveys that the average rickshawala is a master of human psychology, being very attuned to his passenger’s mental state. If he senses that the passenger is in great need of a rickshaw, he raises his fares accordingly.
The effect is calculated as = 5D1 + 10D2, where
D1 = 0, D2 = 0, passenger is not needy, no effect on fare.
D1 = 1, D2 = 0, passenger is in a hurry, raise fare by 5 taka.
D1 = 0, D2 = 1, passenger is desperate, raise fare by 10 taka.
D1 = 1, D2 = 1, passenger is wearing a sherwani and turban and would rather pay 15 taka than miss his own wedding.
Passenger Wealth
Jafar’s Second Law states: “The richer the passenger appears, the greater the fare.” We sent our field researcher Wasi Noor to test the theory and the fare was largely unaffected. Again, when we sent our other researchers, they reported that fares varied considerably depending on how affluent they looked. Wasi’s experiences thus represent an inexplicable outlier that we need not take further account of.
Jafar did propose an equation to measure the wealth effect. This is based on an index figure for Passenger Wealth, where the base is held as being 200 taka in the wallet. Thus:
Fare = Index value/base value
Relatability
Many rickshaw-pullers tell stories to their passengers. One of the writers of this article met a puller who told him all about his three kids and blind uncle. The purpose of this is to make the puller more relatable to his passengers, thereby prompting higher fares. Jafar’s Third Law explains this principle, and he developed the following relation:
Fare = 0.5*Relatability
Where Relatability is a grade between 0 and 10, measuring how likable the puller made himself seem.
Location
Boro Mokhles’ Boro Loker Jayga Hypothesis is, “The richer the neighbourhood, the more the rickshawala can charge.” This is a simple enough concept. The demand for a product is the desire and ability to purchase said product. In more affluent areas the ability to purchase, and thus demand, is higher. For any given level of supply, higher demand leads to higher prices. Boro Mokhles uses a system where he charges extra based on a fraction of the average monthly income in any given area, typically one ten-thousandth. Thus:
Fare = I/10,000 where I = Average monthly income.
He claims it is foolproof. Probably. He is no fool, he wouldn’t know.