Upper East Siders Setting Standard for Taxi Share Etiquette

For insight into how the forthcoming taxi-share changes might actually play out, look no further than Yorkville, where Manhattan's only officially-sanctioned taxi stand whisks perfect strangers to Wall Street every morning, for $6 a pop. Some women have voiced concerns about predatory cab Casanovas using the shared backseat to get fresh, but they might be reassured by the customs that have evolved out of two decades of Yorkville cab share culture. As rider Glenn Caldwell tells the Times, "Everybody seems to know the rules." Namely: No talking. Not to each other, not on a cell phone, not to yourself. Of course, the militant silence could also be attributed to uptight Upper East Side WASP reticence, so we'll have to see how this goes once gabby shoppers start piling into cabs by Herald Square. But TLC commissioner Matthew Daus promises that shared taxis participating in the pilot program will have "a code of conduct" posted inside, discouraging New Yorkers who might, in a moment of weakness, be inclined to let their guards down and actually meet someone new. (After all, that's what the Internet is for.)

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By John Del Signore in News on June 19, 2009 10:03 AM

Comments [rss]

Potty Boy

What about the red-green coasters they give you at churrascarias? Red if you don't want to talk and green if you're open to talking, but with the option of flipping back to red if your co-passenger annoys you?

jt10000

Howard Leight Max Earplugs

Best advance in commuting EVER

jibbly

Get Hearos super soft series, a little more discrete since it's flesh colored (for light skinned folk at least) and doesn't have that tab at the end sticking out.

Trilby16

Until the advent of cell phones and the death of etiquette, it was the custom of all New Yorkers to commute to work in silence. How I miss those days. We also used to exit buses through the back door and other stuff, too. SIGH!!!

pd2009

In a twist, single women in their mid-30s begin to overwhelm the taxi share program, finally realizing that they may actually need to talk to men in order to get married.

Clarice City

"Some women have voiced concerns about predatory cab Casanovas using the shared backseat to get fresh"

And riding the train is any different? I'll venture to guess that the last thing the cab driver wants is a sexual predator attacking people in his back seat while he tries to drive.

miss_mess

casual carpool has been in the east bay for 20+ years. It's like city sanctioned hitchhiking, and you know what? it rules. This is their etiquette guidelines:

http://www.ridenow.org/carpool/what.htm

yetanotherdamneduselessaccount

I'm not familiar with the east bay. Is that near where Brooklyn meets Long Island? Down by Marine Park on the belt?

r1b2

John, connecting taxi sharing to the recent stabbing might not have been in the best taste, eh?

Gothampc

My concern is will I have to give up my seat for someone with a disability? And how do I know that they really have a disability? I mean if I don't give up my seat, I can get a fine or jail time can't I?

schadenfreudian mensch

which brings up another point. What if the person you sit next to is obese and take up the equivalent of two seats. Do they pay extra like they do on airlines?

Gothampc

What if a woman's perfume is so overpowering that it conflicts with the driver's incense covered b.o.?

Peter

Informal car sharing ("slugging") has been around for years on some of the highways into Washington as a way of allowing drivers to use HOV lanes. Rules of etiquette have arisen despite slugging's completely unsupervised nature, and almost everyone follows them.