It’s lime-green, it shuns Manhattan, it’s … a taxi?
Officials unveiled the city’s new outer-borough cab Sunday, which Mayor Bloomberg dubbed “The Apple Green Boro Taxi.”
“For decades, the goal of bringing better taxi service to residents and visitors outside of Manhattan eluded the city,” Bloomberg said Sunday. “At long last New Yorkers in all five boroughs will have safe, comfortable, less costly and legal street-hail service.”
Taxi and Limousine Commisioner David Yassky called the green cab “pleasing to the eye, easy to see from a distance,” adding that it “blends well with the urban landscape.”
Despite opposition from many yellow cab medallion owners, the TLC approved new rules earlier this month to let the city begin issuing permits to let livery cabs legally pick up street hails outside Manhattan. Up to 6,000 cabs can begin applying for the $1,500 permits next month, which only give drivers permission to pick up fares in the outer boroughs or North of East 96th and West 110th Streets. The first set of cabs will hit streets by the end of June, and 20% of them must be wheelchair accessible under a stipulation in the new law, which was brokered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Traditional yellow cabs will retain the exclusive right to get passengers in midtown and downtown Manhattan and at area airports. Both the yellow and green cabs will calculate fares using the same metered system.
Yellow cab owners were livid with the TLC’s decision, saying it would hurt their business and lessen the value of their medallions. The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade filed a lawsuit earlier this month asking a judge to toss out the new law permitting the outer-borough cab fleet.
“The city sold the exclusive rights of street hails to medallion owners,” said Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the group. “In one fell swoop, in the bill that was passed in Albany in the dead of the night, that right was taken away from all medallion owners.”
But the TLC countered by saying only a tiny fraction of yellow cabs’ pickups were outside Manhattan, forcing New Yorkers to illegally hail a livery cab an estimated 100,000 times each day. It also promised that drivers busted trying to pick up a fare in prohibited areas would be fined hundreds of dollars and have their cars confiscated.
— Up to 18,000 permits for outer-borough cabs will be issued in three phases over the next three years.
— At least 3,600 of the outer-borough cabs have to be wheelchair accessible; the city will offer a $15,000 subsidy for drivers who get accessible cabs to help cover additional costs.
— The city hopes to raise more than $1 billion by adding 2,000 new yellow cabs. All will be wheelchair-accessible.
yeah…right…..now wait and see how they catch them after drop off in midtown and pick up during rush hour. TLC don’t have the manpower to stop the black cars in midtown to do illegal and now addtional 18000, what a joke. LMAO
I’m sure tourists will know the difference. Yeah right. And please tell me how ANYONE can make a living cruising the outer boroughs? It’s completely nonsensical. We need outer borough pickups whenever possible to supplement outer borough trips. Think you’ll ever see a fare on Flatbush between Atlantic and the bridge again? Nope. The main problem has been getting a cab to go TO the boroughs, not pick up FROM. Who will want to go there now? But hey, at least they’re GETTING RID OF the OFF DUTY light so we’ll lose the right of refusal entirely, which won’t really matter since no one will hail a cab with an unlit roof light. They say the new green/ black/whatever cars won’t be able to pick up at the airports due to GPS. Really? Imagine how many fares they’ll suddenly be getting just outside LAG and JFK where they’ll TURN THE METER ON. Scary times.
The title and the green color is great for these Boro taxis, but all of them should be hybrid or fuel-efficient (at least 30MPG in the city traffic) vehicles! Yellow cabs should have the forward looking video camera in their cabs to record illegal pick ups!
Imagine if you, and 13.000 yellow cabbies must cruise in the borough just for one day to look for passengers! Could you survive on that with the existing high lease and expensive fuel rate in the borough?
Hopefully, these Boro Taxis will be a lot cheaper to lease, than some yellow cabdrivers could have a choice to get a better deal. Some of you may know where to find enough riders in the boroughs?
Nissan Leaf could be the best Boro Taxi. Sit and wait for the passenger at the busy shopping center in Brooklyn. Well, as I possibly buy or lease the Nissan Leaf and get the Boro Taxi permission. I’m just thinking, what about you?
All there is in the outer boroughs are a few spots where people flag rides into Manhattan during the Morning Rush. The rest of the day is sporadic and unpredictable and basically impossible to make a living off of, since you’re dealing with an enormous area. Hurling 18,000 cars at the outer boroughs is insane. This is clearly being done to wring as much money out of the transportation industry as possible. It’s astounding how they’ve decided to phase out the Off Duty light based on talking to a few New Yorkers. Did they talk to the DRIVERS, who rely on it? It serves a very important function, it allows us to make money at the end of the day without risking being late. Who the f*** is going to hail a cab with an unlit roof light.
New Orleans taxi industry has something in store it cannot anticipate – every year sailors scrape the barnicles off their boat hulls The New Orleans taxi industry is in for a big surprise, thousands, and millions of taxi industry barnicles stuck on their cabs by the parasite barnicles that cannot be scraped off. A barnicle taking thousands a day out of the taxi revenues which are paid only by the riders, a GPS and talking card-swipe screens all of which have worked well so far in manipulating and controlling the taxis. Those with the parasite barnicle technology to do it, buys out the top shakers in any given city taxi industry (those who are rich owner renters that do not drive a cab), For example, to get these barnicles onto the cabs, the parasites will offer the rich renters a percentage of every credit card job, forever and ever. Each city is different, in New Orleans how many cabs owned by the multiple owners, how many cabs owned by an owner operator. In any event, these technology parasites will begin dictating to the cab industry, in their own interest. The more vehicles they can get their barnicles onto, the more money they make. So as they get stuck on every cab, next step is to say, hey, more cabs needed, last week someone could not get a cab. If, like in NYC, they could sell 18,000 medallions more in New Orleans (not likely) the more money they can make. The interests of the drivers who are making a living at it, and the owner/drivers who are making a living at it, are ignored – all steps taken benefit the barnicles and the bought-out taxi movers and shakers, to include city heads and councils. Once you get stuck in this barnicle hell, there is no force in the United States that can scrape these barnicles off the cabs. The riders who if asked whether they’d like better cabs or this or that, are promised shangri la. What the riders will get is doubled fares, and cabs will be for the rich. Next, so that drivers cannot talk to their passengers, their partitions will be bolted shut with 1-1/2 inches to talk thru to the riders. Then, suddenly, the vehicles will be no good, and $35,000 vehicles will be next. If the New Orleans taxi industry knew what was good for it, these technology barnicles would be drop-kicked out of Louisiana. Their secondary steps will be using their technology to take controls of dispatching, and their GPS will tell who has the longest trips and who goes where, only to have the barnicle interests and the barnicle buy-outs take-over this business they now know where it is. Cabbies pay rents in cash, but are just about totally taken over by card-swipes. No one seems interested in rental garages taking in thousands in cash in rents every day. It is interesting, in NYC 2/3 of the industry is comprised by garages renting to cabbies, while 1/3 of the NYC taxi industry is owned by the individual owner/operators who may own another cab, or two. All of these parasite barnicles are going to put the 1/3 out of business, while the 2/3 gets card-swipe and equipment kickbacks. Other cities, have garage renters comprising 1/3 of the cabs, while owner and lease operators comprise 2/3 of the cabs. Still it is the 2/3 owner and lease operators who will be put out of business by these parasite barnicles. New Orleans, get out while you can. The only possible benefit these barnicles can provide is to issue press releases that distort the activities, and strive to make the councils look good.
6,000 NYC greens – 20% or 1,200 to be wheel chair accessible. And NYC yellows to put on 2,000 new medallions all wheel chair accessible. However, as it turns out, beginning 2013 the Nissan NV200s will be placed in service by those medallions which have its vehicle expiring. Yet, the NV200s are all wheelchair accessible, are they not? So that means that little by little, every NYC yellow will be wheelchair accessible, while the NYC greens will only have 20% wheel chair accessible. If the NYC greens’ meters and all the equipments are the same, how is this any different, really, than a NYC yellow, except for territorial pickup restrictions. Yes, NYC yellow medallion owners should be livid — their territorial rights have been re-sold!!! And if these green medallions are starting with a $1500 permit, boy that is certainly getting in on the ground floor, and how many movers and shakers, the rich elite, will set permitted vehicle in service, that will later on be trading in the thousands, eventually to reach millions? It is very interesting that the gov even got into this. It is an insult to the whole NYC yellow industry to double sell their territories, with the same meters, and what vehicles, pray tell, will be approved for the NYC greens? Must they purchase a NV200 also? Tbis is all about money and how many card-swipes can be installed — 18,000 more in NYC plus the other 2,000. Is that 20,000 card-swipes more than already? Follow the money. The rider will pay, and the cabbie will do the work, and the card-swipes and the billionaire owner garages will make billions. The money. Nothing else. And then to say, NYC yellows seldom go into the boroughs. Well this did afford the car services and liveries to offer a reduced price to the outer boro riders and make a little money. But no, outer boro riders going to pay big time, and the drivers going to do the work, and the money going to go to these card-swipe, gps, meter vultures.
This experiment is dead on arrival, because of all the additional overhead involved, it’s not economically sustainable.
I can’t stress this enough, the scope of the TLC, should be limited to getting illegal gypsy drivers, instead of generating revenue for the city by harassing legitimate livery drivers via fines; so that city can close there budget issues on the backs of drivers.
STREET HAILS ARE OBSELETE WITH CURRENT TECHNOLOGY, a livery taxi can be requested throughout the 5 boroughs by phone, mobile app, or through a website. At the convenience of any location, be it home, job, lobby, club, etc; there is no need to be hailing anything in bad weather.
Now if the riding public can’t make a simple call or use a mobile app to request transportation services, then we are all doomed.
Furthermore, this plan is not thought out at all. The TLC basically instituting these rules/laws first and then worrying how it will work later. This is going to set off a chain reaction of bad effects that will hurt many people.
The problem with this plan starts from the very beginning in comparing Manhattan to the Outer Boroughs. In Manhattan, you have residential areas mixed in with commercial, cabs literally cruise past your home, you also have huge amounts of tourists & everyday business people using cabs. This is not how life is or works in the outer boroughs.
Also the TLC is forcing all “Ambulette Vans” to get the permit so it can count towards the percentage of “Handicap” accessible vehicles; these vans don’t cruise the streets looking for street hails, it’s not their job. Trying to pull a fast one over on the handicap because you are trying to make this law work; once again, more proof that this wasn’t well thought out.
To sum it up… bad plan, bad timing, and ultimately… bad results.
Look at those Freaking People in that picture …LIME GREEN ? That s the smiles of $$$$$$$ 1 BILLION Dollar Green….Oh YES But Wait TILL NANNY BLOOMBUM Relizes How Much CANCER ansd LUNG DISEASES he has CREATED His 18,000 and 2000 more CRUISING EMTPY CABS Roaming ALL 5 Boros , Will He still be Smiling ? Oh Wait before WE Know THE REAL EFFECTS of Outer Boro Cabs , Bloombum will be OUT Of Office ….And Remember FOLKS NYC Still Has a Whopping 10 % UNEMPOYMENT RATE Highest in the NATION !!!! Oh Your SO Smart Mr Former MAYOR / Loser / Rapist of the Taxi Industry ….$cumbag….
Interesting comment Tony Fox. NYC brought this upon themselves through the ballot box, and it is through the ballot box it will stop. However, the etched in stone plans will not be canceled. Yellow is okay by itself, but doesn’t yellow and green remind you of phleghm from a real rough cold? The plans have been laid long ago as soon as the technology parasites obtained their equipment and programming. Was it a coincidence that every NYC cab was installed not with a card-swipe but with a card-swipe system that is also a dispatch system (gps) waiting to be activated – it is all there. It is obvious the plan is for all NYC yellows to be gps computer dispatched and this control will come from the card-swipe barons. All the moves add up to a card-swipe baron controlled industry. There is a reason that the 18,000 outer boro taxis have the SAME METER as the yellows. Now it may be that the 18,000 will not be able to p/u hails or pre-arranged in Manhattan, but you can bet your bippy that they will be computer dispatched very soon around the boros, and then poof Bomborg will say why should someone in Manhattan not have a cab when 18,000 greens can be computer dispatched? It is the money from the card-swipes be about $200,000 a day, underestimated, and the computer dispatch fees. But the biggest will be, hey, didn’t the taxi market players ride up the price of the medallions to $1,000,000 and individuals to $600,000? Oh my gosh, the possibilities for riding up the permits of 18,000 new medallions starting at $1500!! This is not about the rider, or the driver, it is about a bunch of taxi parasites getting rich. These movers and shakers have in effect taken over the NYC taxi industry. Who would have thought that the whole NYC focus and NY state focus would be on . . . a taxi ride. It wouldn’t warrant this extreme focus, except for the huge millions adding up to billions that the conniving parasites are going to take out of the NYC taxi business. And whoever is in the way going to get squashed. It shouldn’t be a surprise, already the app cell phones advertised say a rider will be told where the closest cab is, ha ha ha, as if the rider will run ten blocks! Computer dispatch through the control of the rich barons is overtaking NYC and it is all about the money. Is anyone strong enough to stop this? Not in time, that is why the greens have been authorized so quickly. When is Bloombum out? The justification, just pull one complaint out of the drawer, the complaint card is played. Card-swipes were the name, but computer dispatch was always the game. The 5,000 individual owner operators will be squeezed out.
Taxi Emperor, Im glad Sb knows street hails in OB r not only obsolete but dumb thing to do. But “MAP HAILING” “COUCH HAILING” or “LOUNGE HAILING” (words coined by me) using smartphone apps like HAILO, TAXIMAGIC or CABULOUS can’t be for OBs or FHV only. Currently illegal according to TLC policy soon will and should be challenged because these relatively new apps are shaping n changing too basic transportation infra important to every body not just OB residents. In the news a month ago, London based Hailo was trying to enter NYC market including yellow. Besides business side, Im positive that passengers in Chelsea Sports complex or Tudor City or Roosevelt island dorm student soon will be tab on yellow.
I meant TAP on YELLOW n one can track the movement of approaching cab on the smartphone map. Bad timing of introducing bygone concept or city is being shrewd above the game? Btw, OB cabs are not good for OB because it doesn’t solve interboro problems between M n OB. Bad for OB community development n OB business because residents n customers will have more difficulty moving from M to OB. N what a joke to color it green not blue, congestion exasperating cabs in M. To sum it up, sorry we are living in the dark age of NYC ITS (it doesn’t stand for intelligent transportation system but Idiotic Imbecile TS one example of NO TURN ON RED sign @ E 61 n York n numerous others spots plus intersection mistakes plus DOT bragging fixing potholes while creating sunken manhole potholes plus endless list to write a book).
Look @ the shadow on the picture.. Am I Evil?!
Hey comrades its all my fault. I saw bloommberg with a hoody and sagging pants around 3 in the morning by alphabet city and i didn’t pick him up, now he is out get us and take revenge against us.
Congradulatio, now, all you A$$…hole cab driver had done it ,sucessfully create green monster, I am not supprise to see a seperate green taxi line on train station, bus terminal, ny water way for outter boro and over the zoning passenger, All you A$$..hole no need to cruise with off duty light on during rush hour any more, soon people will know where to get the green taxi. there might also be a green taxi line on ariports for all shortie, you A$$ hole think you can out smart the system, don’t you? it will be difficult to get a return trip from downtown biklyn, williamsburg now, All you wise guy is destroying the life and income of all honest driver. since you think you are so smart, now it is your chance to fix this OB issue and reclaim yourself as a hero.
INSANE, TRAFFIC IS ALREADY SO BAD, HOW 2000 MORE CABS!!!!!!!!NOTHING WILL MOVE AND WE ALL KNOW THERE`S NO FARES TOO!!!!!!!BUNCH OF STUPID WHO EVER APPROVED THIS..PLEASE DRIVERS DON`T WORK FOR FREE..AFTER LEASE AND GAS YOU GO HOME EMPTY POCKET.. IS THE PRICE OF LEASE GOING DOWN???
TLC MATH…..MAKES NO SENSE
The TLC estimates there are about 100,000 illegal street hails a day in the city.
There are approx. 40,000 “Livery Diamonds”
Take away 10,000 from that number (Luxury & Black Car) so you are left with
approx. 30,000 FHV/Community Car Diamonds
According to the TLC, each livery car does an average of 3 street hails per/day?!?!?!? Make no sense.
Numbers can’t be accurate. I bet you that at least 40-50% don’t do any at all, just good, hard working, law biding citizens looking to make money and stay out of trouble.
I’m not saying it doesn’t go on, but not to the extremity the TLC claims….
It is an acknowledged fact that yellow cabs do not cruise the areas Uptown Mann and the Outer Boroughs except for the Airports.
Given that no one can force yellow cabs to cruise in those areas. How do the yellow cab drivers and owners propose that NYC or NYS address the issue?
I am raising this as someone who drove a yellow cab back in the 70s