Gothamist: No Cellphones for Cabbies

me

Tue, 17 Feb 2004 23:32:34 -0500

Cabbies need to shut the f@ck up and drive the car. I'm not paying for them to yap yakitty yak in. The TLC says that you can expect a "quiet" ride or refuse a tip. It says it on the yellow sticker in the back. How would you like it if your dentist was having a conversation "hands free" with someone while he was cleaning you teeth?

philippa

Mon, 16 Feb 2004 11:16:35 -0500

yeah, i just think that they are driving slower if they are talking into a cell so the fare is more and frankly in 5 o'clock traffic on west end avenue, say, that's incredibly annoying. now i hear the fares are going up, so i can't say i'm sorry about the phone ban.

Nobody

Wed, 11 Feb 2004 00:24:01 -0500

Don't come down too hard on the cabbies. They drive quickly and aggressivly; their goal is to get as far as they can as fast as they can. Be thankful; they keep traffic in this city from coming to a standstill. And by and large they do it safely. I have no idea what the statistics are, but I'd bet that cabbies get into far fewer accidents per mile driven than the average citizen.

WL

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 23:05:38 -0500

You do realize why so many cabbies are yakking away late at night right? Lower airtime rates or free nights on cell plans means that they can take a cell phone, plug in an 800 number for a pre-paid international phone card, and call home for a fraction of the cost of a land-line call. Remember, midnight in NYC is 10am in Karachi.

candleblue

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 22:01:06 -0500

If cellphone calls are being banned due to safety reasons, then they'd have to ban talking in cars at all. You can get just as distracted talking to someone in the backseat as you can talking on the phone (or maybe even more, since you might have the urge to turn and look at the person etc.) But if they're banning them for service-related reasons, like how it's rude and stuff, then fine by me.

Patrick

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 18:58:25 -0500

I can understand truckers having CBs. Anyone who has to drive arcoss Iowa (and anyone else who has will argee with me) should do everything possible to keep themselves alert and awake. NYC traffic is another story.

Ash

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 17:24:01 -0500

Yeah, I have to disagree Jen. Forget the danger. Given the driving skills of the average cabbie I don't think the phone has a meaningful effect on safety. It will be nice to ride home at 4am without trying to follow a heated argument in a language that I'm fairly sure I only think I understand if I am drunk. The cabbie phone phenomenon is so invasive, it really can add to the shittiness factor of any given moment. A litte quiet goes a long way.

Tom

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 14:55:09 -0500

If a cab driver wants to make a phone call, he should do it while parked. If you're paying for him to drive, you're paying for his whole attention, not half of it. He's compromising your safety and your time by talking on the phone. There's a reasonable limit on personal phone calls at work in almost every job for the same reason: if you're busy chatting, you're likely working at less than 50% of your capacity on your actual job. Numerous studies have shown that splitting attention between multiple tasks reduces your awareness of any one of them. Of course highway accidents are more fatal (and how does this not apply to cabs on highways) because of the higher speeds involved. But i-town accidents, while not fatal, tie up entire avenues for blocks in terms of traffic. In a city, that's a big problem. Even a slight decrease in accident rates multiplied by thousands of cabs would result in a significant decrease in traffic, pollution, and delays.

Greg

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 14:52:35 -0500

I have no problem with hands free cell phones for taxi drivers...ONCE THEY LEARN HOW TO DRIVE LIKE NORMAL INSANEE NEW YORKERS...NOT KAMIKAZE PUDDLE SEEKERS ;)

Nobody

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 13:13:39 -0500

What bothers me even more is people who don't drive who think they know what traffic is like or what is best for New York drivers. If one is primarily concerned about safety one would be more worried about highway driving than city driving. Manhattan traffic rarely gets faster than 30mph. A 30mph accident means wrinkled fenders and jostled passengers, possibly whiplash. On the highway, where looking at the down at radio for one half second means you missed the last 44 feet -- two or three car lengths -- getting into an accident means destroyed cars and dead passengers. There are far more fatal accidents per vehicle per mile of highway than per vehicle per mile of city street -- ask any cop.

gerrard

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 13:03:50 -0500

Over the weekend a cabbie drove me out to the wilds of brooklyn and was able to get help with the directions from one of his colleagues over the phone. You can make the argument that a NYC cabbie shouldn't need help with directions, but I was sure glad he had that lifeline to turn to. Do we really want cabbies driving a hundred miles a day with nothing to take their minds off of the monotony? I don't.

Nobody

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 12:55:47 -0500

"Of course, we're against holding a cellphone while driving for cabbies as well as regular drivers..." This is absurd. Study after study shows that hands-free devices have little effect on safety. The dangerous thing is not that one hand is holding the phone, but that the driver is distracted by being involved in a phone conversation with someone in another place. Reactionary legislators think they're doing us all a favor by outlawing hand-held cell phones in the car, but if they were serious about safety they'd have to also outlaw Palm Pilots, sandwiches, and little sheets of paper with directions written on them.

jake

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 12:54:42 -0500

yeah- it's pretty stupid to allow people to talk and drive at the same time. i understand cabbies get bored, and occasionally need to ask for directions, but i've taken cabs where the cabbie treats you as a rude interruption to the business that he is conducting in the front seat. so i'd say a fair rule would be to allow phonecalls only when the cab is not moving.

Michelle

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 12:30:22 -0500

considering that NYC traffic is quite rough i understand the banning of any cellphone chats.

Wes

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 12:10:13 -0500

Funny, the other day my cab driver was actually using a CB radio instead of a cell phone. I wasn't aware of the cell phone ban, but maybe that was a result of it.

janelle

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 12:03:21 -0500

i wouldn't say it's safe for cabbies to be on the phone while driving, i find it more annoying than anything, all the chatter. i'm not sure what mta policy is re: bus drivers and cell phones (i'm guessing it's off limits, even w/ hands-free devices), but their vehicles are considerably more challenging to navigate. i think it's a double standard to say cabbies can't make calls, but i could (if i owned a car). it can't really be that much of a public safety concern if there isn't a movement to ban the use of cellphones while driving outright. or maybe there is, i don't know.

joey

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 11:30:07 -0500

An NYC cabbie without a cellphone is like an L.A. waiter without a screenplay. What will become of our true stereotypes, Gothamist, what?