Jackrabbit starts and sudden stops are a hallmark of New York City taxicabs, but they aren’t very fuel-efficient.
New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is fighting to replace the Crown Victorias in the city’s taxi fleet with relatively fuel-efficient hybrid cars, as my colleague William Neuman has reported.
Here’s another idea for saving gas: requiring taxi drivers to learn how to drive smarter. At the moment, there seems to be no focus on fuel-efficient driving (sometimes called hypermiling) in taxi school, except insofar as it overlaps with defensive driving and passenger-relations training.
“There is no training specific to that,” said Allan Fromberg, a spokesman for the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, a regulatory body, referring to hypermiling. He emphasized that hybrids would aid fuel-efficiency.
Hypermilers could find plenty of savings, however. In New York, taxis often screech down side streets, even when a red light looms ahead — then they slam on the brakes to stop for the light, a tactic that can reduce fuel economy as much as 5 percent in town, according to CleanMPG.com, a hypermiling Web site.
As a general rule, the less abrupt braking you do, the more gas you save, according to CleanMPG. By zooming down the streets and then stopping, taxis are simply wasting the gas they used to accelerate — not to mention being unsafe.
Similarly, after the traffic light turns from red to green, New York taxis often floor the accelerator and race off — another waste of fuel relative to accelerating more slowly (and money out of the pocket of the driver, who pays for the gas).
Andrew Vollo, who is the director of a taxi-driver training institute at La Guardia Community College, said that defensive driving courses overlap with fuel-efficiency courses. “If you’re going to be driving with a heavy foot like that, you’re going to be driving dangerously,” he said.
He noted, however, that competition among taxi drivers has recently become fiercer, so the heavy-foot syndrome may “increase even more” as they battle for fares.
Possibly the taxis’ most irritating tendency, because it affects other drivers as well, is the habit of crowding into intersections when the light is about to turn red. This inconveniences other drivers, who cannot enter the intersection when the cross-traffic is blocking it, increasing everybody’s idling time and wasting more gas.
In July, David Paterson, the governor of New York, signed a law that raises fines from $90 to $115 for “blocking the box” in New York City.
In my five months in New York, I have never seen anybody ticketed for it.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
j cifuentes 11.20.08 at 8:14 pm
In response to Kate Galraith coments about never seen any one get a ticket for blocking the box, (a) may be you need glasses (b) may be you live in a world where poeple do everything for you and not in the real world of the working class people . I invite you to come on and drive a cab yourself and see it first hand, can you do it? and please leave your doorman and maids at home.
noah 11.21.08 at 1:06 am
I am sure everybody on this site is familiar with how pro fuel-efficiency and environment my views are.
still- this author is a complete buffoon, there is a reason for every driving behavior and she has only scratched the surface. also taxis are not the major culprit of ‘blocking the box’ a term which she fails to recognize, the major culprits are trucks, buses, and people from new jersey.
where is this article from?
Abie 11.21.08 at 8:53 am
There is no reason to race to a red light. I see many drivers (taxi and other) doing it so mentally unaware of it’s counter productivity. They pass me as I’m driving down the same street slowly to the same light and then we wind up side by side waiting for the same light to change. My passengers time and again compliment me for driving the sane way I do. The tips prove it!
The TLC should have courses for newbie drivers on safe driving and smart ways to make money. It’s ridiculous to put someone in a taxi without this training. It’s just as or even more important for drivers to know this as what ever else they teach.
Ewa 11.21.08 at 10:29 am
“money out of the pocket of the driver, who pays for the gas”
Business is slow and more competitive than ever. If you drive like a old man everyone will steal fares right in front of you. 5-10 dollars gas more at the end of the night is not going to make such a big difference as losing 5-10 fares because some dirty driver Jackrabbits from the other lane right in front of you and takes your passenger!
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/
Gil Avineri 11.22.08 at 10:24 pm
My most recent blog post addresses precisely where you can go if you want to see meter maids writing box block tickets. 37th Street across Park in the morning rush hours and 3 Avenue across 56th in the afternoon rush. I’m sure there are many more. As for hypermiling in taxicabs, there are moments when it’s viable and moments when it’s not. The other comments did a good job of describing that.
Abie 11.23.08 at 5:09 am
Ewa,
Your a perfect example of why they need to train you. You don’t have a clue!!!
Chip Stern 11.29.08 at 4:26 pm
Ewa,
Getting into a Ben Hur chariot race with recklessly aggressive, discourteous drivers does not garner you an extra 5-10 fares a shift or win points with passengers, it only increases your chances to have an accident.
Competition for fares? Sure, and what of it. If a passenger is impressed by someone who cuts across five lanes of traffic from the extreme left lane to cut you off, even after they’ve acknolwdged your hail, then they are MORONS and not worth the effort–let them and their “Driver” race off to meet their destiny together. They won’t tip you any more than the smokers who ask you to break the law, or the five passengers who want you to risk your license and their lives because they are too cheap to take two cabs.
Drive like an old man? How about drive like a sane man. Cab drivers are prone to honking at me because I am in no hurry, proceed down side streets at 20 mph instead of at 50 mph, and do not gun the engine to run a red light–hey Speed Racer, while you are sitting at that light, a passenger might get it…DUH!
Likewise, there is no reason to accomodate passengers who want you to stop in the middle of crosswalks, to make illegal turns off of thru streets (”…everyone else is doing it…”)…our margin of error is ZERO. Your philosophy of how you “HAVE TO DRIVE” to make money is ludicrous, and why cabbies present so much danger to other cabbies.
Are you prepared to break the law, endanger pedestrians or passengers or lose your gig for a lousy ten-twenty dollar fare? Very short-sighted and childish.