Gothamist: TLC Commish: No One Wants Cabs Outside Manhattan

Catherine

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:32:47 -0500

Either I'm using the wrong cab companies, or y'all are dead rich to be able to call bklyn cab companies to pick you up in manhattan to take you home. Those bastards start charging upwards of 35 bucks a ride when I mention manhattan, but a yellow cab straight home on my directions is 20 bucks or less. And I'm nice enough to have pre-written instructions on how to get back to the city, lest the losers try and bitch about leaving manhattan for 15 minutes.

greg

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:55:40 -0500

gypsy cabs are fine but I love seeing the stray yellow cab in williamsburg. at least i know what the meter is going to say rather than having to play guessing games with the driver.

Lucy

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:55:37 -0500

I AM a scared Yuppy living in Brooklyn and I want to be able to hop into a Yellow Cab without complaint to go home from my job or events in Manhattan. I don't want to have to call ahead to some service and I hate taking the sketched out J train home at midnight or later. I think it is appropriate that a transportaion service that, in theory, is supposed to serve all 5 boroughs, should, in fact, serve and understand the basic layout of all 5 boroughs.

SatanIsland

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:50:54 -0500

I've never seen a yellow cab in Staten Island, but who cares? The local cab companies are cheaper and actually know their way around the island.

Jack

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:48:10 -0500

Anyone who lives in Brooklyn (and oh that would make 2.5 million, 1 million more than in Manhattan) knows the number of at least 4-5 car services who are WAY more reliable than any shitty yellow cab who bitch about their quick jaunt across the bridge. In fact, on New Year's Eve, I called my favorite Brooklyn car service to have them pick me up IN MANHATTAN and they were there in 10 minutes to drive me home without complaint! Yellow cabs are for drunk idiot stock brokers partying in Times Square who need a ride down to Ground Zero.

Still Not Amused

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:03:07 -0500

We don't use Yellow cabs in Brooklyn . Only the scared Yuppies do .

anon

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:44:36 -0500

Bloomberg has already come out against the bill. I don't know how the city can be anti-cabs outside of Manhattan, but pro congestion pricing. A car is a car. And if it gets the guy from the LIRR Forest Hills station back to his Glendale two-family without driving to Manhattan, isn't that the goal? Or are cars really okay in Manhattan, as long as they're serving only Manhattan.

Dan Dickinson

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:17:11 -0500

I assume all of the cab companies will also be moving out of LIC because Manhattan is just that much more of an ocean.

ryan

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:14:04 -0500

I have a hard time believing that in certain areas of different boroughs, the fares are SO few that cabbies would not do well. I'm with #1: cabbies pitching a fit over taking me to Park Slope and LIC are ridiculous. A rough idea: there's a couple of empty lots on 4th Avenue anywhere between 9th Street and, say, south of the Atlantic Center. Why not set something up there, given that other work's already being done to bring more businesses in that area?

BenjyZ

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:06:44 -0500

The solution is simple: Zoned Taxis. Yellow cab licenses are expensive - that's fine, they should be. Give them the exclusive right to pickup people in Manhattan, in addition to the rest of the city We can create another color coded taxi - say Red Cabs, or Green Cabs - and given them the right to pick up people in the boroughs but not in Manhattan. This is a real necessity in the boroughs these days. Expensive, hip neighborhoods should have plenty of taxes ready and willing to pick people up. It just doesn't make any sense to give yellow cabs the exclusive right to pick up passengers off the street in boroughs they refuse to serve.

Patrick

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:39:27 -0500

"When there's an ocean of water to drink in Manhattan, why would they go for a puddle in the outer reaches of the city?" Screw this guy! We have more stuff in the "outer reaches" than Manhattan anyway!

Alex

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:09:25 -0500

I love gypsy cabs!!!

Mike

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:46:48 -0500

"Haggling" with car service cars may be a pain, but if you're interested in saving money, it's worth it. a cab from 110th and broadway to dyckman street might cost $17 in a yellow. in a gypsy cab, it's anywhere from $3-$5 cheaper. plus, north of 125th street, a lot of yellow cabs have no idea where they're going. usually you don't have to give a car service driver light-by-light instructions to the seaman aves and academy streets of upper manhattan.

Lexiphane

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:43:36 -0500

Q: "When there's an ocean of water to drink in Manhattan, why would they go for a puddle in the outer reaches of the city?" A: Because if you drink seawater, you'll suffer seizures, lose cononciousness, and sustain brain damage.

bxmo

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:42:36 -0500

we don't trust yellow cabs in the bronx, we like our gypsy cabs and haggling is part of our culture. not to mention, all you other boroughs treat us like the ugly stepchild. so leave our car services alone, and oliver koppel is a jack*** because they're not illegal anymore!

outerburrougher

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:35:50 -0500

I refuse to tell cabbies where I'm going until after I'm in the cab and the door is closed; too many people I know have problems with cabbies refusing rides to people going to the outer burroughs (even if just over the bridge to LIC or Astoria). That probably messes with that 8% a tiny bit.