Taxis of New York City
Taxis painted apple green (street hail livery vehicles, commonly known as "boro taxis"), which began to appear in August 2013, are allowed to pick up passengers in Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens (excluding LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport), and Staten Island.
[18]: 1 (PDF p. 2) Passengers in New York City can arrange rides using smartphone apps in yellow medallion taxicabs, Boro (green) cabs, and for-hire vehicles.
Each type of TLC-licensed vehicle has its own set of guidelines in regards to app usage, and the TLC has adopted new rules that codify these standards.
[19] This still held mostly true in 2015, where the greatest number of TLC drivers, about 14%, identified their place of birth as Bangladesh, followed by 12% the Dominican Republic; 9% each from the United States and Pakistan; and 6% from India.
[27] Drivers are required to pick up the first or closest passenger they see, and may not refuse a trip to a destination anywhere within the five boroughs, neighboring Westchester or Nassau, or Newark Liberty International Airport.
[28] The TLC undertakes undercover operations to ensure cabbies do not engage in racial profiling or otherwise discriminate against passengers hailing cabs.
[40] As of 2006[update], drivers earned an average of $158 after a 12-hour shift,[38]: 32 but this figure has declined in the succeeding years, given that an increasing number of medallions have been leased since then.
[43][44] Later that year, on September 13, Henry Bliss became the first victim of an automotive accident in the United States when he was hit by an electric taxicab as he was helping a friend from a streetcar.
[37][45] After America's entry into the First World War, taxis became increasingly popular sites for both sex work and casual (non-monetary) sex, and the city's cabbies were subsequently targeted for surveillance by police and private organizations associated with the Progressive Era Social hygiene movement, especially the Committee of Fourteen.
In 1937, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia signed the Haas Act, which introduced official taxi licenses and the medallion system that remains in place today.
In 1967, New York City ordered all "medallion taxis" be painted yellow to help cut down on unofficial drivers and make official taxicabs more readily recognizable.
The response from regulators was to contend that "continued violent crime against cab drivers" (despite partition mandates) merited a new "lock-box" requirement.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, of the 62,000 cab drivers in New York City, 82% were foreign born: 23% being from the Caribbean (the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and 30% being from South Asia (Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan).
The Chevrolet Caprice and Ford Crown Victoria became the industry's top choices, with formerly used police cruisers providing a steady supply for cab fleets.
[58] In addition, yellow cab operators also used the Honda Odyssey, Isuzu Oasis, Chevrolet Venture, Ford Freestar, and Toyota Sienna minivans, which offer increased passenger room.
In 1998, the TLC enacted a package of regulatory reforms, inspired by Mayor Rudy Giuliani, that included a structured framework of enhanced driver standards.
In 1999, actor Danny Glover filed a complaint with the TLC, after he was allegedly refused service by New York cab drivers.
Under the leadership of Bhairavi Desai, the union grew to fifteen thousand members (2011 estimate), representing almost one-third of all licensed cabdrivers in the city.
The messages proved largely unpopular with both drivers and riders, as the TLC learned after conducting an online survey about the program in the fall of 2002.
However, the plan was dropped after cab companies complained that the cost of maintaining the new hybrid vehicles vastly outweighed the tiny amount of fuel savings they got from going smaller.
[citation needed] Proponents of the traditional Lincoln Town Car and Ford Crown Victoria say they were well suited to their task, while others said customers who cared for the environment preferred hybrids.
[70] The TLC also mandated that by the end of January 2008 all taxis should be equipped with a Passenger Information Monitor that is a screen in the backseat that can provide entertainment, a live GPS map of location, and be used to pay for rides by swiping a credit card.
[84] In the end, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the Nissan design as the winner to replace the city's 13,000 yellow cabs, to be phased in over five years starting in 2013.
Thus, a compromise plan was announced in December 2011: the next 4,000 new medallions must go to accessible cabs, and the Governor will ratify the Mayor's initiative to let livery cars compete for street hails.
Following state legislation passed in 2011, the TLC voted in April 2012 to allow livery cabs to be licensed to make street pick-ups in the outer boroughs and northern Manhattan, a rule in effect starting in summer 2012.
[10] Participating drivers must have their car painted and the Taxi logo and information printed, and also the affiliated base on the rear sides, and cameras, meters and GPS added.
[12] Despite the de jure prohibition on picking up passengers who hail on the street, some livery cabs nevertheless do so anyway, often to make extra money.
[3] This, in turn, led to several high-profile suicides of taxi drivers who had seen decreases in profit due to the proliferation of rideshare vehicles.
[133] In August 2018, the city voted to stop issuing new ride-share licenses for one year, as well as enacted a minimum wage for for-hire vehicle drivers.
[4][17][134] The vote was intended to regulate the for-hire vehicle industry and prevent taxi medallion prices from falling further, but Uber and Lyft criticized the restriction, stating that it would have a negative impact on commuters in the outer boroughs.
