Have you wondered why a livery cab has been parked in the same spot for days? It may be that Con Ed is behind it! The Daily News explains that Con Ed has "come up with a bizarre way to protect the public from stray-voltage hot spots throughout the city - it's hiring livery cab drivers to guard them until crews can fix the problem." The drivers sit in their cars - and sometimes with orange cones on top of the cars - with the following sign:
A stray voltage hazard was discovered here. The coned/taped off area contains an extremely dangerous electrified object or structure.
I am unable to move my vehicle because I am guarding this coned/taped off area from pedestrians.
Suddenly, this makes the Brooklyn DA's act of deputizing a cat much more plausible.
In the old days, Con Ed would have one of its vehicles parked where stray voltage was detected, but now 1,000 livery drivers are doing that. Even though Con Ed also says that the drivers are trained, some residents are skeptical and one even called 911: "Don't you think ConEd should have let us know instead of letting a stranger sit outside like that?"
Roger Lane, father of Jodie Lane who was killed by stray voltage in the East Village, told the News, "Cones and cabs, policemen and firemen - whoever they put there that will protect the pedestrian from inadvertently walking on top of it is fine with me." We're just curious about how much the program costs. And whether livery cab drivers will be used to transport residents in blacked-out neighborhoods.
Photograph of how Con Ed is on it by the known universe on Flickr
