December 2008

The year 2008 has once again been a transformative one for the TLC, as well as for all of our regulated industries. While the economic downturn has resulted in challenges to all of the TLC’s regulated industries, your combined efforts have continued to serve the riding public well, and have helped to keep your industries strong and vital, and in some instances have even helped to make our world a better and healthier place for ourselves and for our children to grow. Whether you are a member of the taxicab or for-hire vehicle industries, each and every one of you reading this message has contributed to these achievements, even if by simply following our regulations and providing quality service.

At this time of joy, when we pause from our work to celebrate with friends and family, allow me to add my personal wish for a most Happy and Healthy Holiday season, and a joyous, healthy and prosperous New Year for each of you and your families.

Let us also take a moment to think about those who have lost family and friends, or have suffered difficult times over the past year. Let us remember them in our prayers and lend them our strength so that they may enter the New Year renewed and refreshed, and with their burdens lightened, if not lifted.

Celebrate… and enjoy!

Matt

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Would-be cabbies driven off

by Brooklyn Mark on December 23, 2008 · 4 comments


It’s getting harder to hack it in New York.

It used to be when times were tough and you needed cash in a hurry, you dusted off your hack license and got behind the wheel of a yellow cab.

Not so fast, now.

With thousands of New Yorkers newly laid off there are more drivers than cabs. And many garage owners say they are turning would-be drivers away.
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New York City To Get LED Street Lighting

by Brooklyn Mark on December 21, 2008 · 2 comments


When a small city, like Calabasas, Calif., does something innovative, like banning outdoor smoking, that’s interesting. But when a big city like New York tries something new, it’s probably time to sit up and take notice.

Which is what makes an announcement scheduled for Wednesday so interesting. The city’s Department of Transportation has contracted with the Office for Visual Interaction, a lighting design group, to install and test L.E.D. street lighting. If the tests are successful, the city’s entire stock of 300,000 street lamps could one day be replaced with L.E.D. versions.
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Empty Cab Theory

December 16, 2008

A Wall Street driver and the trickle-down of misfortune. Pervaiz Waraich is cruising lower Manhattan, stuck in the worst dry spell of his seventeen years as a yellow-cab driver. After starting his twelve-hour shift an hour early, at 4 p.m., he has grossed just $22 in 90 prime-time minutes. He’s seen pedestrians on the streets, [...]

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Next-Gen Dashboards Teach How to Hypermile

December 11, 2008

When new hybrids from Ford and Honda roll into showrooms this spring, drivers will find flashy dashboards that turn hypermiling into a videogame.  Ford and Honda’s next-gen instrument clusters feature trees (a vine in Ford’s case) that grow more lush as drivers learn to hypermile — the fine art of maximizing fuel economy. Leaves grow like crabgrass [...]

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DMV Workers Charged With Fixing Traffic Tickets

December 10, 2008

Three New York State motor vehicle clerks and a middleman have been charged with fixing 1,475 traffic tickets for taxi and truck drivers facing suspensions of their licenses, the state inspector general announced on Tuesday. The scheme, which operated for two years out of the Department of Motor Vehicles offices on Rector Street in downtown [...]

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Driver Posts Resume in Back Seat

December 8, 2008

A recent MBA graduate who can’t find work has posted his resume in the yellow taxi he’s been driving around New York City to help pay his bills. James Williamson earned his master’s degree in business administration at Philadelphia’s La Salle University. Then he spent four months on interviews while looking for work troubleshooting electronics, [...]

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Pilot for Data Collection Devices

December 5, 2008

New Opportunities to Gather Data TLC has been approached by manufacturers and taxicab owners who are interested in testing data collection devices such as cameras (drivecam) and “black box”recorders. To properly evaluate these suggestions, TLC needs to learn more about capabilities, functionality, and costs.

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