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What we think about taxis in the city is true: The NY Post reveals that taxi speeds are 30 to 40 miles per hour higher than the speed limit. Cabs near schools, parks and hospitals were observed at speeds near 50mph (over the pedestrian city speed limit of 30 mph). John Kaehny, executive director of watchdog group Transportation Alternatives, tells the Post, "Cabs set the pace on the streets. Yet the Taxi and Limousine Commission, as far as we know, is doing nothing about speeding cabs." Recently, a cab jumped a curb and hit and killed a doorman on the Upper East Side; Manhattan, with its congested streets and high level of pedestrian traffic, had the highest number of cab crashes of all boroughs.
Gothamist's advice to taxi riders: Really do try and buckle up. We know someone who was badly banged up after slamming into the plastic divider after the cab was rear ended.
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"The yellow ones don't stop!"
--Buddy the Elf
I started buckling up in cabs after a Christmas party a few years ago--got a bit drunk, fell sort of asleep, and woke up one nanosecond after the driver had slammed on the brakes to avoid something, and one nanosecond before my forehead impacted the raised numbers (braille and standard) on the divider. It hurt like nuts and was an interesting wound to explain the next day. The driver, of course, just turned around, kind of smiled, and said "Y'okay?"
You know how some people freak out over snakes? I feel this way about taxis.
My gf and I were in one speeding through Morningside Heights on the way to a dinner in SOHO and the whole way through Harlem and to Times Square we were doing fifty, at least.
We stopped at the destination and I said, "Jesus, man, you almost killed a couple of people back there."
He said, "Oh, man, but it gets you here like a quick!"
A matrix of giant lasers would fix the problem.
When a cabbie starts speeding, a sensor on a high rise will pick up the offender, and a beam will be directed from the nearest mounted laser, to blast out the guy's tire. (they will have to account for speed and direction in all that).
My last ride in one, where three people nearly got clipped, ended with me saying, "we weren't in that kind of a hurry."
It felt like driving in the third world or something.