6,000 Cabs Dedicated to the Outer Boroughs?
Info is starting to leak out about the city’s plans for retooling how taxis operate, according to a post on City Room, and the buzz is that beyond adding more than 1,500 new medallions, there’s talk of establishing “a parallel class of cabs only allowed to make pickups outside Manhattan” that would number around 6,000….
Info is starting to leak out about the city’s plans for retooling how taxis operate, according to a post on City Room, and the buzz is that beyond adding more than 1,500 new medallions, there’s talk of establishing “a parallel class of cabs only allowed to make pickups outside Manhattan” that would number around 6,000. Gothamist notes that the way this might play out is that individual medallion buyers would also receive a free set of “borough only” medallions. Meanwhile, an association of livery cab drivers isn’t too thrilled about the not-yet-official plans, and Gothamist quotes a statement from them saying the following: “The reality is that yellow cabs are not serving this population and we have for 30 years. We are willing to work with all parties to find a plan that does not cut out the little guy and allows us to compete.”
City Considers Adding 1,500 Yellow Cabs [City Room]
Will New “Outer-Borough Only” Taxi Fleet Kill The Livery Cab? [Gothamist]
Photo by David Berkowitz.
Oh, and for Brooklyn, I’ll always opt for car service unless I can hail a yellow cab (easy on Flatbush Ave, going towards Manhattan).
The difference btw London and NYC is that London cabbies charge a lot and earn a lot. I almost never take a cab in London because they are so wildly expensive. OTOH, NYC has created a miserable top-down system wherein cabbies are shafted so badly only the most desperate new immigrants will take the job. They don’t own the medallions, there are umpteen (often ridiculous) rules to observe, they pay fees for everything, and they keep very little of the fares they collect. So is it any wonder few of them speak English or know their way around the city? I try to always overtip unless the ride has been a real misery.
frank from furter (love the name!)- I know it does happen and it’s not the norm for things like that to happen with gypsy cabs. I’ve used them for years. But similarly awful things happen with yellow cabs too. A yellow cab driver raped a woman last last year, I think it was. Kind of ironic that the TLC guy was hailing a gypsy cab on the street.
Not sure how a taxi in Outer boros is going to make any money trolling for fares with gas at $4.50 a gallon
I’m with BrooklynChicken and BHS. This bizarre proposal won’t solve the problem with taxis refusing to leave Manhattan, and will make car service in the outer boroughs worse.
When I’m in Brooklyn, I prefer to call a car service. They know where they’re going and they’re cheaper.
BxGrl- they give tickets out all the time and make arrests. Last weekend a TLC employee was held hostage after getting in to a Cadillac esplanade with regular plates which he hailed on the street> the driver was charged with kidnapping among other things….
I like bacon with my livery service.
Who’s even monitoring car services picking people up in the outer boroughs? The yellow cabs? All 5 of them? I say let yellow cabs have Manhattan and let the outer boroughs deal with it as they’ve always done. Why should there be a surcharge or rules against pick ups because the TLC is freaking out over territory?
Didn’t Bloomberg float a proposal to let livery cabs legally pick up passengers on the street? I think it got shot down pretty quickly.
I don’t really care, since I almost only take cabs or car services to/from airports.
It does seem like some change is needed, since the current solution for many people in Brooklyn is to break the rules and have car services pick people up off the street.