City Going After Cabbies Who Refuse Fares
Yesterday the mayor held a press conference about the city’s plans to crack down on cab drivers who refuse fares based on where a passenger wants to go, and they released the video above of what Gothamist calls a ‘secret shopper’ looking out for violations.” (The first fare refused in it is to 3rd Avenue…
Yesterday the mayor held a press conference about the city’s plans to crack down on cab drivers who refuse fares based on where a passenger wants to go, and they released the video above of what Gothamist calls a ‘secret shopper’ looking out for violations.” (The first fare refused in it is to 3rd Avenue and Union Street.) According to City Room, “complaints of illegal refusals by cabbies are up 36 percent during the eight-month span ending in February, compared with the same period in 2009 and 2010.” Taxi commissioner David Yassky said at the press conference that “his sister had recently failed three times to hail a cab in the rain while walking with her 7-month-old in Park Slope, Brooklyn.” The city is proposing harsher penalties against cabbies for fare refusals: $500 for a first offense and $750 and a 30-day suspension for a second offense.
City Starts To Take Fare-Refusing Cabbies Seriously [Gothamist]
Cabbies Say No as the Camera Is Rolling [City Room]
I wouldn’t ever bother dealing with an Off Duty cab even when I lived in manhattan.
Blatantninja:
Unless you can cite an ordinance to that effect, I think you are (way) wrong on making a distinction between inside and outside. Who ever told you that? Seems to me that if a cabbie came up to me with locked doors, I’d lie to them, get in, then tell them the correct address. They do not have the right to refuse a fare inside NYC. Period. (I await all the rebuttals about refusing drunk people, etc)
i got refused this week! was in the cab, pouring rain, cab doors closed. i told him i was going to 7th ave. in park slope, and the guy refused and told me to get out of the cab and hail another cab, since that was the “wrong direction” for him.
i have no idea why he didn’t think i was going to report it and get him fined.
if a taxi driver won’t unlock his doors, have your goddess put your child on the roof of the car. when he gets out, jump in the drivers seat and drive yourself home.
it’s called improvisation people. duh!
yes, get in. shut door, put on seat belt even. then give destination. repeat with directions if they mumble.
i use car services a lot back to brooklyn to avoid hassle, but they are a bit more.
if anybody refuses you, call the taxi assoc immediately and give the cabbie’s name and #. before you can finish, you’ll be on your way.
This is all well and good, but the latest trick these guys employ is the “Off-Duty” method. They cruise around with their off duty light on and look for people hailing the cab.
If they see you hailing they pull up, roll down the window with doors locked and ask where you are going. If they dont like the answer: “Sorry, I’m off duty”
IIRC, the law is (or was) technically that they couldn’t refuse you if you are in the cab, but if you are still outside the cab, then they can. My wife recently had trouble getting a cab from the Bowery back to our place in Prospect Heights. It was a late Friday night and three cabs pulled up, locked their doors and made he say where she wanted to go first.
In my experience, the ones that do that are usually the ones that are ‘off duty’ but still looking for fares. When we lived in Astoria, I occasionally had trouble with cabs not wanting to go there. We lived at 28th st and 21st ave. So when they asked where we were going, I’d mumble something like 28th st and 1st ave, so they thought it was still Manhattan. Then as soon as we were starting to go, I’d make sure they were clear it was 21st ave in Astoria. Pissed off a few cabbies that way, but too bad for them.
Grand pa, you need to learn what free market means within the context of management and labor.
C’mon, this isn’t nearly the problem it once was. And almost everyone knows you don’t ASK the driver “Will you go to…” You just get in and TELL him where you’re going. Bloomy is trying to deflect attention away from union-busting and bike lanes.