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Yikes: A woman, looking for a cab to go to JFK, was assault by a man who claimed to be a livery cab driver. Apparently the man, in a black Lincoln Town car, approached the woman in Ozone Park on Sunday's snowy morning and said he could take her to JFK. She accepted, but he later threatened her with a knife near 115th Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard and made her "perform a sexual act." The Post reports that police don't think the man was a licensed livery cab driver, but this makes Gothamist wonder how you can make sure someone is licensed - do you ask for their license? Livery cabs seem to be more plentiful further out in the boroughs, where cabs are less likely to look for fares.
Fake Livery Cab Driver Sexually Assaults Woman
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You can never know really.
What the city should do is have zoned licenses for taxis. The problem we have in this city is taxi drivers are greedy and will always try to go where they will get the shortest rides, so they can get many $2 flag pulls. People in the Boroughs are not going to take a taxi three blocks like some lazy shoppers or Midtown executives.
We can eliminate the flag pull fee, but I think the most effective plan would be to have taxis licensed for each Borough. They can drive anywhere, but only pick people up in their licensed Borough. This would ensure every Borough gets service.
It's generally a very good idea to look at the license plate of any car claiming to be a car service -- if it starts with a T and has no spaces in the sequence, it's at least registered w/the T&LC. If it's just a regular old plate, don't take your chances.
Don't Town Cars need to have TLC-issued license plates too?
TLC cabs must have TLC plates; I always check the plates first. Usually, town cars also have company information on the window of the cab somewhere. I try to make a mental note of the company before getting in, also. Of course the safest way to know you're getting in a real livery cab is to call one yourself and not get in an unmarked car at all.
I live up in Washington Heights where the black (and sometimes white) town cars are constantly beeping at anyone standing still at a street crossing (to let them know they're available for fare). "Oh, yeah," I always think to myself, "I'd just love to get into a black unmarked car and never be seen again. Remembering the license plate is gonna come in real handy when I'm dead!" Never never never will I get into a town car that I haven't personally called in through a car service. Anything else I call the cab-of-death.
(But I may be a liittle on the paranoid side, I'll admit).