Gather round kiddies, and I'll tell you a tale: Long, long ago, before your cell phone could let you do anything besides make calls and play Snake, people who wanted to travel to SFO without driving themselves had to:

• Beg a friend with a car for a ride or
• Load your luggage onto Muni till you get to BART, then take BART to a bus or
• Shell out $50-75 bucks (maybe more) for a cab that (if you live outside the hotel zone) may or may not pick you up and get you there on time or
• For $25 or so bucks you could schedule a Super Shuttle van (or its ilk) that would pick you and many others up hours and hours before your flight and, bumping you up and down (I don't see a seat belt are there any seat belts?) till your teeth were ready to fly out, then would unceremoniously dump you in vague proximity to your airline's departure doors

Oh, the good old days, mulling which I think I just got PTSD. For now one has little excuse to beg a friend for a ride, as BART service to SFO is relatively seamless and an Uber Pool or Lyft Line will arrive within moments of when it's requested and will cost $15-30 (sometimes even less). It's only now the remaining San Francisco taxi drivers are reportedly hoping to return as a top choice for travelers, by offering a $30 flat rate to the airport.

The news of this possibility comes to us via the Ex, which warns that "no formal change has been proposed" but that the $30 SF-SFO flat rate was discussed by "taxi drivers, industry leaders and regulators met in a town hall meeting at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in late September."

According to the Ex, local taxi operator Tariq Mehmood says he came up with the flat rate idea because “We will try to get back our customers.” It's unclear how the rate would be implemented, as the Ex reports that "Cab drivers can set their own prices, and on an individual basis could charge a $30 flat rate on their own," but also quotes Kate Toran, head of taxi services at the SFMTA, as saying that it's possible for the MTA to set a flat rate, but that “It’s still up for discussion. We’re looking at what our options are.”

Luxor Cab owner John Lazar told the Ex that "an advertised price drop may be an effective tool to lure riders," and if the flat rate went into effect, “I think volume would increase, yeah.”

But I don't know about that! Twice now, I've tried to call a cab from Lazar's company to my Outer Sunset business to take customers to the airport. You know how this story ends, right? In both cases, after half an hour of no cab, I called back, and was told that no drivers were responding to the call. I ended up arranging ride-hail rides for both. They were picked up within five minutes in both cases.

So you'll have to forgive me if I am dubious about this whole thing. But what about you? Would you start taking good old taxi cabs to SFO if they were only $30, or have you tired of giving that industry chances?

Related: San Francisco's Biggest Cab Company Sold To Competitor For $810K