Results: http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/news/survey.shtml
I’d like to thank the academy — and New York City cab riders.
Yellow-taxi passengers are voting for their favorite Oscar contenders in a new, first-of-its kind survey on the TV screens in the back of every cab. 
The riding public can cast a vote in five categories — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Animated Feature Film.
As of yesterday, riders had given Steven Spielberg’s epic biopic, “Lincoln,” a lock on Best Picture.
Twenty-eight percent of the more than 21,000 voters predicted that “Lincoln” would win.
The second favorite was Kathryn Bigelow’s gritty “Zero Dark Thirty,” which garnered 17 percent of the vote.
That film’s strawberry-blond star Jessica Chastain — who plays a CIA officer chasing terror monster Osama bin Laden — leads the Best Actress field with 34 percent of the taxi vote.
Jennifer Lawrence, of “Silver Linings Playbook,” got 27 percent of the vote and is in second place so far.
Daniel Day-Lewis’ portrayal of Abraham Lincoln propelled him to the front of the Best Actor pack with 44 percent of the vote.
He was followed by “Les Misérables” star Hugh Jackman who had 23 percent.
In addition to Best Picture and Best Actor, cab riders also think that Spielberg will nab Best Director for “Lincoln.”
He had scored 46 percent of the vote as of yesterday.
But, in a surprise, 30 percent of riders picked Ang Lee as their choice for Best Director, for “Life of Pi.”
Although critically acclaimed, the visually dazzling film fared better at box-office markets overseas than it did in the United States.
Taxi & Limousine Commissioner David Yassky — a big movie buff — said the survey was a way to engage passengers.
“New Yorkers love to talk about movies, and I figured they’d like this,” he said.
It’s also a chance to show off the city’s impeccable taste in films, he said.
“No disrespect to LA, but I’ll take the judgment of New York City taxi passengers over academy members any day,” he said.
“Lincoln” is his picture choice.
To vote, click on the survey button on the monitor in the back of all yellow cabs.
Results will be updated on the TLC Web page every few days.
The annual awards show airs on Feb. 24.
What if all of a sudden there will be plenty of jobs paying $3k a week, I bet you, most drivers will still drive taxis and still be complaining about tickets and traffic and rude passengers. Why this unwillingness to change things in your life is beyond my understanding. What makes you people want to do this job, what’s so special about it ? As one of the bloggers describe it it’s close to being a prostitute. all the people I know quit it and found other things to do.
Nobody ever wanted to drive taxis. This job has always been available. That is the only reason I think I got involved. And now I hear people waiting in line to get a cab,pay bribes to dispatcher?You people must be out of your mind. It’s the worst job in America by all standards .I see many Indian guys working at Wall street, their checks are in a range of $15000-20,000 All of you from Pakistan or India are too smart to drive taxis .Usually it was drug addicts who drove them before. It’s not the taxi industry or a commisioner or a mayor ,you are the one to blame. Look at the mirror and find all the answers which annoy you at this job.
The obsession has no borders. Another female and another ,what do you guys expect. New restuarant opened on upper East side everybody goes their.Baked, fried meal how exsiting. Take 100mil white american males ,separate’m from their female counterpart,send’em to the harshest conditions of norhern Canada.Simple pleasures – hot bowl of soup, made out of frozen cubbage.Some die, some survive.Reality of life.Suffering is the vertue. 400million of people live in Northern America,500 mil in south America,what all of you do? What a miningless existance.What separates us from other animals? The ability to create. Is one genious work worth thousands of lives, probably is. Is there anything be left after our generation, none what so ever,Paying bills.idiotic mumbling about someone’s family as if somehow the next generaion will be more productive. Village of fools becomes a city of fools ,which turns into a country of fools.
A blogger compared it to being a prostitute, Sunman? That is really pathetic, and surely that’s not how you view it, is it. Maybe that is what many drivers project to their passengers, and if so, they surely get it back in spades.
No, hardly the ideal job, if it even is a job, as jobs have set hours and wages and even…benefits. The hours arduous, the working conditions crushing, the street taxes daunting.
But cab driving is only demeaning if your self-image is as such.
Our non-paying, window breaking MEAT MARKET “socialite” notwithstanding, the attraction–well, more like a fringe benefit–is the people.
As bad as some isolated individuals can be, most of the people are quite cool, and if one cares to even minimally interact with them, a driver can impact passengers in a positive way, and get some of that vibe back, not just in the form of tips, but the satisfaction of knowing that you have lightened someone’s load for a brief period of time.
Most professional drivers I know have a million stories about pleasant interactions, characters, and shared laughter. It ain’t all bitterness and exploitation, and if some SOBs would get off of their cell phones long enough to at least say “Hello, how are you today” at a minimal, while it needn’t always result in a conversation, at the very least it breaks the ice, and lets passengers know that they can relax a bit, let down their guard, because the driver is not an embittered sociopath (of if he is, at least they are on their meds when you met them).
During those periods when I am not hacking, while I surely don’t miss the grind and the traffic and those shifts where you come home with maybe fifty bucks for ten hours work, I most assuredly DO Miss the People–it is a privilege to rub up against men and women from so many different walks of life around the world, to provide them with a peaceful oasis, and to share something fleeting and all too human with them in rubbing up against your fellow spirits.
What planet you people live on? Last time someone talked to me was 20 years ago. Everyone thinks you are an idiot driving taxi.
And even if you do try to talk someone it’s like walking on a hot lava.One single word one of them doesn’t like and he is ready to jump on you as if you were his biggest enemy. Who needs that?
Koch is gone. So does his era. New York which will never come back. Down to earth people ,making no difference between them and god forgotten cabbie. Easily going from subject to subject,no matter what was the discussion about.Never irritated or annoyed .Knowledgeble,familiar with the world culture and achevments ,no pseudo patriotism,putting a conversation ahead of proffits ,judging you as a person, not how much you are worth.What has replaced people like this?Cab window smashing ,money abssesed individuals, boring to death,those who never hold a single book in their hand?
Last time I talked to one of these neophites who told me that he went to an opera called “phantom of the opera”