I am waiting for the study that shows an increase or decrease in yellow taxi accidents after this "crackdown" went into effect.

You guys clearly don't remember how bad it was before the invention of cell phones--those cabbies would talk your damn ear off all the way home! Are you married? Have any kids? What do you do for work? I particularly remember one who kept asking me if I were Jewish. And the loud music blasting out of the rear speakers! I say talk to your friends as much as you want, just keep your eyes on the road.

The cell phones are bad enough, but when they pull out the prayer mats, I'm outta there.

Maybe cab drivers will just follow the lead set out by teenage drivers across the country and start text messaging instead of talking on the phone; texting is easier to conceal, even if it is more distracting.

What ever happened to the old time cigar chawing cabbie who would tell you the time he had Marilyn Monroe and John Kennedy in the back seat doing it while they drove through Central Park?

Ah the good old days.

On the other hand thank God for cell phones.

Maybe if they spoke in English this wouldn't be so much of a problem.

Focus on the road, bathe more than once a month, and deal with the rules associated with your job. If you need to focus on your autistic child, then don't drive a cab...

Exactly! I can't imagine what type of all-day updates this man's wife is giving him about their child. Ridiculous.

There shouldn't be a ban at all as long as they're using a hands free device.

The hands free device was just so your cabbie could have one hand on the wheel and one hand giving everybody the finger

I don't know if I'd want my cabbie to have free hands.

You'd think hands-free would be fine, except it's still not good enough. I've been in cabs where the cabbie was so focused on talking, he missed where I wanted to be dropped off. The problem is they can't do two things at once. A bluetooth keeps your hands on the wheel, sure, but you're still trying to focus on a conversation AND pay attention to the road and the customer.

Every traffic safety study done in the past decade or show disagrees with you.

his hack brother was ticketed for talking on his phone as he waited in line at a taxi stand

Well, if his brother told a newspaper reporter that the guy was ticketed while he was parked, it must be true. The only place people will lie about traffic violations is traffic court.

"If they're going to keep on doing this, I have to get another job," one cabbie lamented yesterday.

Get another job, or maybe... stop talking on the phone while driving.

"I just got a call and I can't do nothing with it," he said. "I just can't answer. It's terrible."

Terrible! The worst thing to ever have happened through civilization's history! The humanity!

I assume you never take personal calls during your workday?

Some people actually let their phones go to voicemail when they are in the middle of a task at work that requires their attention. You wouldn't stand for a cashier at the grocery store taking a call on her cell in the middle helping you, would you?

Exactly. If I'm doing something at work that requires my attention -- the equivalent of driving, like writing a Gothamist comment for example -- I won't pick up an incoming call. Or I'll do the equivalent of pulling over the curb, and save typing the rest of that comment til the phone call is over.

I do it all the time. It's not against the rules. If it were, I'd be faced with that same choice: get another job, or just stop talking on the cell phone.

Do some cell phones come without voicemail or something?

I'd rather the cabbies talk on their phones than to me.