Taxi drivers bothered by racy ads on top of their rides are about to have another thing to worry about. The Taxi and Limousine Commission today votes on whether or not advertisements should be allowed on taxi receipts [PDF]. We have a very strong feeling it'll pass. more ›

Good news for drunk taxi passengers (or just riders with bad math skills) is less good for taxi drivers. After this week the auto-suggested tips for rides under $15 in taxi cabs with VeriFone Taxi TVs will stop being $2, $3 and $4 options and instead resort to the standard 20, 25 and 30 percent defaults already available in the Creative Mobile Technologies Taxi TVs. Hurrah! more ›

Back in October those annoying TaxiTVs installed in every cab in the city started asking riders to answer a few quick survey questions and, shockingly, people answered them. According to the TLC, since the surveys started showing up, 113,000 of them have been taken—and taxi riders turn out to have a lot of dough! more ›

Cabbies really hate the outer boroughs it seems! But they also apparently have gotten quite good at spotting the TLC's enforcement agents whose job it is to ticket them when they refuse rides. So the TLC has gotten clever and hired a bunch of college kids for $10-an-hour to catch hacks who deny service. And the results are depressing—if not surprising to anyone whose ever tried to get a ride over the river. more ›

The new surveys that greet you on Taxi TV aren't the only changes that have recently been introduced to the annoying backseat boob tubes. Four years after the TVs started being standard in cabs, The Times is reporting that the two major Taxi TV vendors have recently, and quietly, started to lower the initial volume on them. And that's not all! more ›

New Yorkers may not like those Taxi TVs in the back of every cab, but the backseat boob tubes are here to stay—so at least the TLC is finally going to make some use out of them? Yesterday the Taxi and Limousine Commission began adding mini-surveys to the mix of GPS, local and news and annoying videos that greet fares when they enter one of the city's 13,237 cabs. Is your driver talking on his cellphone? Are you riding a cab for business or pleasure? How much money do you make? Is this TV broken and impossible to turn off? The TLC wants to know! more ›

We've said it before and we'll say it again: The humble NYC Taxi medallion continues to be the best investment a person could have made way back when. How good? A man who bought two medallions for $80,000 apiece in the 1980s just sold them for $1 million dollars each. By the numbers, over the past 30 years the taxi medallion has outperformed the Dow Jones, gold, oil and the American house. No wonder some cab companies are so opposed to Bloomberg creating a new tier of medallions for the outer boroughs! 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 ›

Despite increased fines and enforcement for cabbies who break the law and refuse to take customers anywhere in the five boroughs, one hack clearly states that he "doesn't give a f*ck" if a fare takes down his number after he refuses to drive to Williamsburg from Manhattan. When the customer declines to leave the car, the cabbie tells him, "Get the f*ck out or I'm gonna break your face." While the last video we saw of cabbie discrimination against Brooklyn was "deeply disturbing," this one guarantees that tears of indignation will be pattering steadily upon the pages of your moleskine. 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 ›

The US Attorney's office has jumped into the fight over the Taxi of Tomorrow by opening an investigation into whether the lack of wheelchair-accessible taxicabs in New York City amounts to a violation of parts of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Though one of the initial goals of the Taxi of Tomorrow program was "universal accessibility for persons with disabilities" the TLC eventually settled on a Nissan model that is not wheelchair accessible (versus the Karsan design, which is), a development which irritated many. more ›

Despite Mayor Bloomberg's recent efforts, it is still hard to catch a cab to the outer boroughs. But things are starting to look up! Not only are regular hacks soon going to be facing stiffer fines for refusing fares, but Bloomberg is now stepping up his efforts to turn his failed street hail livery service plan into a whole new breed of taxi medallion that will focus on serving areas that aren't Manhattan. 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 ›

Are taxis too slow for you? Are limos too much of a hassle? Are buses too crowded, and subways too dirty? Is the idea of riding a bike tantamount to slicing off a finger? Then we have just the perfect transportation for you: Motorcycle Taxis. more ›

According to a recently-released survey [pdf] by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the second biggest criticism from cab riders is about the Taxi TV, which automatically turns on in the back seat of cabs and, in some cases, never shut off. Only the cost of cab fares is disliked more than Taxi TV—36.8% of respondents cited the fare as their biggest beef, while 31.3% said those annoying TVs were the worst. And among the Taxi TV critics you'll find none other than TLC Chairman David S. Yassky. more ›

John Amato, president of Show Media, is giving himself (and all art lovers) another gift this year. Show Media sells the ad space on many of New York's taxis, and thanks to Amato 500 of them will be featuring the art of artists Chuck Close and Kehinde Wiley (this is the 2nd year he's doing this, last year featured Yoko Ono and Alex Katz). Amato says, "Art is a great passion of mine, and I am very fortunate to be in a place in my life where I can do this as my annual holiday gift not just to myself, but to everyone who enjoys seeing the art as it travels around New York City’s streets." Consider this a $100,000 roaming art exhibit! more ›

Forget about cabbie dress codes, let's talk about cabbie fines! The News reports that beyond worrying about the clothes on your hack's back, the TLC is now getting ready to raise the fines it levies on drivers who don't follow the rules. The problem is that although the TLC has many a rule governing driver behavior (they can't talk on cellphones, must display their license, etc.) the fines associated with breaking them, most falling between $25 and $350, are too low to be reasonable deterrents. Especially since most drivers never seem to get busted for them in the first place. The proposal for the new fines isn't done yet, but should go before public review in the coming months. We can't wait. more ›