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The Taxi and Limousine Commission is looking to redesign taxi cab partitions for the future. The NY Times notes that the partition was originally created to prevent crimes, like robberies and murder, but now things like legroom and giving riders a view of the city are making the TLC wonder if they need to shake things up. The article also waxes nostalgic about cabbie conversations, but lately, Gothamist would imagine most riders think they are going crazy because they think the driver is speaking to them, but the driver is actually on the phone. And believe us, Gothamist loves talking to cabbies, but there have been times when we've been told we were going to die very soon (we've never had the luck to meet the matchmaking cabbie!). Perhaps taxis need roof windows (not sunroofs, because then there would be ways for the fare to cheap out) to show off the city's vistas. Gothamist's favorite quote was from the former TLC Commissioner, Jack Lusk: "Those partitions create a plastic surgeon's dream." No kidding - we've been people whose faces have crashed into the partitions when cabs stop short and it's not pretty, so buckle your seatbelts, even if it doesn't help with bumpy rides.
Do you want to see the partitions stay or go? The TLC has been looking at other ways to redesign cabs.
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I actually got to meet the matching making cabbie. His name is Ahmed. Really nice guy!
He even does the non usual cabbie sort of thing... such as decorate the entire car in flowers and heart ballons for special occasions. He'll even pick up a cake with candles and basically do anything you want... all for a premium free around 100$.
I've never used him.. but I was smart enough to snag his number before leaving the cab.
Prior to this mention of him, I forgot about his services... and the girlfriends bday is coming up. WooGothamist!
After getting my face bloodied on a cab partition and seeing a woman killed on 42nd St. after her cab jumped a curb and slammed into a pillar, I ALWAYS buckle up when I get in a cab. Given the craziness of the driving, it's insane not to.
i can't remember the last time i was in a cab where they actually closed the partition.
I asked a cabbie to stop smoking once, and he slammed the partition on me. Didn't work.
In general, the TLC keeps doing all of these things o try and make cabs "happy places", but let's face it: most cabdrivers are either a-holes or could give a rat's balls what you think about the lack of A/C, their talking on the phone, etc.
Cabs are overpriced for the poor service. Refuse a tip until you get the "service" with the car ride.
i'm pretty sure the service is getting to your destination alive.
Hey Dave, I know the incident you are talking about. IIRC the cab picked her up around the corner on Lex, but before she had time to put on her seat belt (which she always did according to her famliy) the cab sped off at high speed, careened through the intersection on 42nd and smashed into the pillar. I'm guessing the cabby had his foot planted firmly on the gas thinking it was the brake pedal as I am sure is the case with all these runaway car accidents where the throttle stayed inexplicably open.
I heard another story where a woman's face split along part of her nose to her mouth due to the partition when the cab rear ended another car.
So yes, always buckle up in the back.
BTW, the service may suck (which is not my experience) but you can't beat the price when you compare with many other cities in the US and around the world.
I heartily congratulate Sewell Chan for one of the ‘best researched’ article on this subject ever.
I also congratulate the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission for finally conceding that this is a subject that must be addressed.
Until now, my efforts to inspire correction of taxi partition use drawbacks and the question of their viability in taxis have been met with TLC resistance or denial that there was any need for it.
I will do my best to not come across as confrontational or strident, however considering the huge number of deaths from collisions and assaults and the staggering increases in the severity and frequency of injury, that will be difficult for me. Gentility in demeanor on this matter seems horribly out of place. I have floated my philosophy on taxi and police cruiser partition use and their viability across the minds of hundreds of thousands of taxi passengers riding in cabs I have driven over the last twenty five years (with partitions for 20 years in Boston and 14 years without them in New Orleans) and nobody has poked any holes in my balloon. It floats. Recommendations made by me and implemented by regulators and the media have resulted in the most radical reductions in losses I have observed in my 35 years in the business.
Sewell Chan is, in one sense, correct about the ‘fear factor’. However, I feel compelled to try to modify the readers’ impression of just whose fear we are talking about. If the driving force were ‘driver’ fear, then drivers would either put partitions in - of their own volition or quit driving taxi.
The fear of income loss for fleet owners who were having trouble renting their vehicles out for night shifts –
and the fear that the regulators would seem unable to APPEAR concerned, functional and or effective –
were the actual fears that truly prompted partition use requirements.
That contention is supported by the fact that they made the rule, making their installation mandatory.
The taxi regulators who have been asked about partition failures over the years - have repeatedly been deliberately deceitful, obscure and nonspecific about the objective of partition use requirements and have always overstated the viability and it’s correctly ascribed achievable objective.
In fact, Sewell Chan’s article cites the true initially STATED objective of this requirement – to save the lives of cab drivers. Unfortunately, when it became impossible to ignore the continuation of taxi drivers being murdered - the ascribed objective shifted to assault reduction or robbery discouragement. The first- easily quantified… the second – nearly impossible to measure or prove.
When it has been observed that they always fail in the mission of keeping a driver from being shot dead - taxi regulators smoothly and obsequiously shifted the ascribed objective to assault reduction and robbery prevention or deterrence.
If I am permitted I will continue with my comments on the subject with another installement which responds to the second paragraph of the 8/9/05 NYT Sewell Chan Article which continues with "Over its lifetime, it would become yellowed and defaced; its contraption for safely passing money to the driver would often break down."
SWC
Partition design innovator since 1980
34 yr taxi driver veteran - 20 in partitioned cabs and 14 in cabs without partitions