Taxi owners won another round Monday in their fight against the city's efforts to turn its yellow cabs green. Saying that emissions- and mileage-related laws were only for Congress to make, U.S. District Court Judge Paul A. Crotty blocked a new set of city rules that would have allowed fleet companies to charge fuel-efficient cab drivers higher rental rates for their vehicles. The higher rates would provide a strong incentive for those companies to switch to only greener, hybrid vehicles and phase out old gas-guzzlers. Despite rejecting the plan, Judge Crotty still praised the city's intent in his ruling: "Increasing the number of hybrid taxicabs is an appropriate and important governmental priority." And though this is the second time Judge Crotty has struck down the city's attempts to convert its taxis to a more fuel-efficient fleet, New York City Law Department Counsel Michael Cardozo says the city's not giving up yet: "We do not believe that Congress intended to prohibit local governments from implementing incentive programs ... that encourage the purchase of environmentally friendly taxis. We are exploring our legal options." more ›

Remember that crazy cabbie who, despite a number of assault charges and a DWI arrest, continued driving his cab with a suspended probationary license? Well, apparently he's still at large, but the TLC is now going after 10 cab companies that leased taxis to the hack, one Ramez Akladious (pictured), from February 2008 through January 6th, 2009. His hit list of offenses include slashing a passenger's face, driving drunk, punching another driver in the face, and a racist assault on a black female passenger, who just so happened to work for the TLC. Officials tell the Post they're "sure" he no longer drives a taxi, but nobody's seen him since the beginning of the year. The cab companies are due in court next month and face hefty fines and possible suspensions for leasing taxis to Akladious when his license was suspended. more ›

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.) more ›

Data culled from new computerized systems installed in taxis reveals that despite the recession, the number of cab rides each day in NYC is on the rise. Cabs carried approximately 478,000 in February, an all-time high since the Taxi and Limousine Commission started using the electronic trip sheets. In recent years, the old-fashioned taxi meters had registered between 400,000 to 450,000 cab rides a day in New York. more ›