An app that allows you to report grievances against your cab driver shows that customers' number one complaint is refusal of service. A smartphone app called Report A Taxi (in which users plug in a driver's medallion number and then choose from a list of common complaints to, you know, report a taxi to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission) was used by 814 passengers over a span of four months. more ›

Yes, the city's oldest cabbie—92-year-old Johnnie "Spider" Footman—must have an "encyclopedic" knowledge of the city given he's been picking up fares since 1945. But will he get us the hell off the BQE in time to make our flight? "He goes about 12 miles per hour," the co-owner of Footman's depot tells the Post. "I drive more slowly now," Footman says. "I don't pass anybody, hardly." more ›

Stop and frisks and cycling citations are at record highs, but the NYPD isn't doing a whole lot about the noise that raises the collective blood pressure of city residents. Incessant honking, which totally makes traffic jams disappear instantly, is a $350 fine in most of the city. And though we've never seen a cabbie not impatiently honk at a car going the speed limit, the TLC is trying to change that behavior by sending them text messages reminding them of the fine. Not surprisingly, the cabbies are not letting go of their horns quietly. more ›

The latest group to complain about mobile food vendors are none other than cabbies, who claim that trucks and carts are crowding taxi stands around Columbus Circle, costing them precious fares from the hordes of shoppers burdened with bags from Stuart Weitzman. And DNAinfo reports that City Councilwoman Gale Brewer is taking up their cause. more ›

Now that your mind and your monthly Metrocard has been blown by the MTA's closure at noon, you'll have to settle for a taxi. But the impending hurricane has transformed the meter into a mysterious "zone" system (no relation to the evacuation zones), full of cryptic "letters." However, the changes aren't nearly as byzantine as DC's old zone system, and the new regulations will even force livery cabs to charge the same as the yellow ones. Strange times, indeed. more ›

Not getting a ride to Brooklyn is annoying, being dragged hurts, and racial profiling is worse. But what really stings is being refused a life-saving ride to the hospital while you're gushing blood on the street. A 20-year-old Harlem man who was shot in his left arm in a housing project before running two blocks down 8th Ave to 150th street couldn't catch a cab to safety. A witness named "Strawberry" told the Post, "He tried to get a cab to take him to the hospital, but nobody was stopping for him. Four cabs passed him away." Note to the Post's editors: either her last name is "Shortcake," or someone may have counted on you not listening to a crucial line in a seminal N.W.A. track. more ›

In a heartless campaign of terror, the Taxi and Limousine Commission initiated a livery cab crackdown in the humble Meatpacking District this weekend, handing out 96 summonses for drivers that illegally and "dangerously" scooped up people just trying to get off their six-inch stilettos for a few minutes. According to the Post, one livery driver was ticketed twice, and makes the good point that if you're not breaking the Ten Commandments, there's no crime: "I'm a Christian. I don't know why the TLC is persecuting me!" Exactly. What Would Jesus Do? He'd take you anywhere you need to go (except Brooklyn). more ›

The Land Rover SUV carrying 7 people that flew off the FDR and onto a taxi cab at E. 23rd street in Kips Bay may have been "doing about 112 mph." According to the Daily News' police sources, the driver was speeding and lost control, sending the vehicle over the elevated roadway and onto cabbie Atif Raza, who has only been driving a taxi for three months. "I couldn't believe it," a witness tells the paper, "I was actually seeing a car come off the divider and flip. It was flying." All eight people involved in the accident were injured, but only two critically, and one woman even "walked away" from the wreckage. more ›

While we've been worrying about higher fares and ugly new taxis, cabbies have apparently been worrying about something more primal: their lives. You see, robberies of medallion and livery drivers have jumped 37.5 percent since 2007, rising annually for the past four years. No wonder hacks are putting on bullet proof vests! more ›

In our latest installment of Cabbies Gone Wild, one unhinged hack jumped out of his cab during an irate argument with two Bed-Stuy bound women he picked up on West 44th Street Sunday afternoon. As the video begins, the driver is unintelligibly imploring them to get out of his cab, but the ladies stand their ground, armed with the knowledge that cab drivers are legally required to take fares anywhere in NYC. But the driver, identified by the Post as Paul Efobi, had a foolproof plan: violently lunge at the women in the back seat as they videotape him with a cell phone. [Warning: there's loud shrieking at the beginning.] more ›

If you were excited when Mayor Bloomberg announced his plan in January to allow livery cabs to accept street hails in outer boroughs we have bad news for you. Under pressure from taxi owners the city has shelved the idea. But Bloomie and the TLC are still trying to find a way for you to easily, legally, catch a ride outside of Manhattan! more ›

Tired of worrying about the MTA fare hike that looms for 2013? Would you be interested in trading in your concerns for some fresh worries about a possible Taxi fare hike? Because with gas prices past $4-per-gallon the New York Taxi Workers Alliance is planning to ask the TLC next week for a 15 percent raise in fares. And the TLC's chairman, David Yassky, is not rejecting the idea out of hand. more ›

We've done many dubious things to prove our parents wrong (we still owe you one, Peruvian consul!) but hailing a cab from LaGuardia to LA strikes us as the ballsiest. John Belitsky's father, a former New York City cab driver, told his son that there was no chance he could catch a ride that far. But that's exactly what Belitsky and a pal did, for $5,000. more ›

The Manhattan DA's office is currently preparing criminal cases against cabbies who wrongly charged passengers out-of-town rates. A TLC analysis shows the scam wasn't as widespread as initially thought, with only 21,819 drivers shown to have overcharged passengers at some point, rather than the initial projection of 35,000 drivers. The DA is looking only to take down the "worst offenders" who used the higher rates as a source of income, and is moving to revoke the licenses of 663 drivers who wrongly charged passengers over 50 times each. TLC head David Yassky told the Wall Street Journal, "I don't want to start the hearing unless I'm confident that the driver deserves to have his or her license revoked." more ›

Are city cabbies making "sun tea" in their vehicles? Of the 44,000 TLC drivers on the streets, most working 12 hour days, you can imagine how difficult it is for them to find a place they can relieve themselves. So many allegedly "resort to going in the street or peeing in bottles stowed under their seats." more ›

After yesterday's announcement that the TLC will be cracking down on cellphone using cabbies, people on both sides of the plastic partition are not happy. Many drivers insist they use their cellphones responsibly and should not be punished. "My wife is home with cancer," one driver tells the New York Times, "If my cellphone rings, I’m going to pick it up." The new rules would forbid drivers from using any device capable of non-emergency phone calls, even if they were to pull over. One driver tells the Daily News "I understand that we can't talk on the phone while we're driving, but to say we can't pull over to take an emergency call...It's like a form of slavery." more ›

"He put his face into the plexiglass separation, the section that is left open, and screamed 'You f------ b----!' and spit at me, which I could feel spray all over my face. I screamed the loudest I have ever screamed in my life: 'Let me out of this cab!'" So ended a ride home to the Upper West Side for 24-year-old Sarah Snedeker, who claims her driver became irate when she insisted on paying by credit card, locking her in the cab for five minutes while they argued. more ›