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The City Council has proposed a bill that would direct half the new taxi medallions for this year (about 300) to go towards wheelchair accessible cabs and the other half to hybrid vehicles. However, the Taxi and Limousine Commission chairman is against the plan. And he may have reason to be: The wheelchair accessible cabs already being used have "a series of component failures" and the hybrid vehicles don't tend to have those partitions. Now, "a series of component failures" sounds bad, though we don't know how that stacks up against failures in regular cabs. And "safety partitions," though bad sometimes for the riders who don't buckle their seatbelts, do seem like something cabbies might want just in case.
And taxi drivers are petitioning to add a $1.50 fuel surcharge to rides. The Federation of Taxi Drivers says drivers make "$30 to $40 less than what they were two years ago." There's a mixed reaction from riders, with WABC7 getting a "No problem" from one person and a "No one's raising my salary $1.50 for the price of gas" from another. It'll be up to the TLC Commissoner and then a board to decide whether or not to advance the surcharge. Well, if there's anything to encourage drivers to use hybrids cars, then this would be it, but would they want hybrids without safety partitions?
Taxi medallion bidding starts next month. The last fare hike was passed two years ago.
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Marvelous. Another reason for people to complain about increased costs.
The TLC is a corrupt body that represents the interests of wealthy medallion owners and looks to screw over the drivers who lease the medallions from those owners at every turn. If taxi drivers got the money from their fares and paid the cost of their car and gas without having to pay back half or more of their earnings to a medallion owner, we could pay less in fares and the drivers could take home a lot more.
Hybrids are ideally suited for the city - all that stop and go traffic is exactly where hybrids have the best impact on fuel efficiency.
And pedicabs will soon become a regulated system of clean non-mass transit transportation. If the taxis want to keep raising their fares, the pedicabs may seriously undercut them.
It all makes for hopefully much cleaner air in the future.
Wheelchair accessible? Lots of leg room? Big enough for four passengers, comfortably? Good fuel economy? Great safety record? LONDON TAXIS!!! Every time I'm in London I always wonder why we don't use them here... oh, and taxi drivers who speak English, take directions, go into all boroughs, know the best routes to any and all addresses? Again, London takes the prize. Why can't we (won't we) learn from their sterling example?
My recollection is that London cabs cost a bloody fortune, and are not necessarily available for hailing within a minute or two everywhere in London.
Go ahead and raise the rates. I'll just stop tipping altogether.
piss on that fuel surcharge!
I am amazed there is no hybrid Crown Vic yet. I think there would be a big market for both taxi and police use.
Toby, I read somewhere that Hybrids Accelerate faster. A Good reason for the police to use them?
I Stopped tipping after the last fare hike anyway. And now a fuel surcharge? If the cab drivers stopped driving in a manner which wastes as much gas as possible (gunning it a green lights and waiting until the last second to stop at reds just to gun it again), I would be sympathetic.
PLus, if they're so broke, how can they afford to talk on their cell phones to family in Pakistan for 12 hours a day 7 days a week?