Yellow Cab NYC

Strict new rules went into effect for New York City cab drivers on Friday that ban drivers from using electronic devices while driving. The ban includes hands-free Bluetooth devices.

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NYC Media, the official TV, radio and online network of NYC, and the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission announced the launch of an innovative voting campaign in the City’s 13,000-plus taxicabs that allows riders to choose new introductory content for the passenger information monitors (or PIMs) in taxicabs. “Be a Backseat Driver” invites taxi riders to view three potential choices for the greeting that runs upon entering a taxi and includes information about fare rates and rider safety, among other details. Riders are encouraged to vote online to choose their favorite by visiting www.nyc.gov/backseatdriver.
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The time has come for gabby cabbies to hang up or pay up, as super-strict rules cracking down on Bluetooth-happy hacks go into effect tomorrow.

Taxi and Limousine Commission agents and NYPD officers will be on the lookout for drivers using any electronic devices while not legally parked, including iPods, GPS devices and satellite radios.

Officials are also hoping that riders will report any hack in violation by calling 311 or logging on to the TLC’s Web site and filing a report.

“I’d report them,” said Emily McCollun, 23, from the Upper East Side. “They’re reckless drivers when they’re having a conversation on the phone, whether or not it’s hands-free.”
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Name: Solomon Neuschatz
Age: 37
Years behind the wheel: 11
Average shift:1pm–1am
Number of breaks: “A few, but they’re always just five or ten minutes.I multitask while I drive.”
Number of pickups in a 12-hour shift: “Ten to 14 when I’m doing airport runs; about 30 if I don’t go to the airport.”
Miles accrued per shift: 150 to 200
Money made before expenses per day: $250 to $300
Money made after expenses per day: $50 to $75 (“My lease is $150 per day; gas is $45”)
Biggest “tip”:$100. “It was on a long trip out to Jersey—the fare was $80 or something. The guy wanted to give me $100 total, and there were two $50 bills stuck together between his five twenties. I didn’t realize till later.”

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After a driver pulled his yellow cab to the curb on Cadman Plaza West near Middagh St. around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, the car burst into roaring flames and burned within minutes.

Firefighters from Engine Co. 205 and Ladder Co. 118 – one block away on Middagh Street – responded rapidly, soaking the car and sending clouds of thick smoke into the air. The taxi was left a blackened, incinerated shell, with its seats burnt away and only half of a melted steering wheel remaining.

The taxi’s driver, Mr. Alvi, told the Brooklyn Eagle that he was driving two passengers, a man and a woman, over the Brooklyn Bridge when he noticed smoke coming from the hood. “It was just a little smoke,” he said. “I pulled over and told the passengers to get out. When I opened the hood, I saw it was on fire so I called 911.” The fire quickly engulfed the cab, a Ford Crown Victoria.
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It has been more than a decade since the last old Checker cab disappeared from the city’s taxi ranks and nearly three decades since the last new cab rolled off the production line.

And yet, as a quick visit to any shop peddling tourist trinkets will confirm, that boxy yellow taxi with the cartoonish styling and a passenger cabin the size of a Manhattan living room remains an enduring symbol of New York.

Even after the Checker cars were gone from city streets, the company that made them, the Checker Motors Corporation, lived on. In fact, the company demonstrated surprising staying power as it quietly evolved from one of the country’s best-known independent carmakers to a manufacturer of car parts for General Motors and other companies.
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Program aiming to cut costs through shared cabs was supposed to launch last month

A program designed to help city-goers cut expenses by reducing taxi fares for people who share rides was supposed to launch last month, but New Yorkers will have to wait at least until the end of January to take advantage of the discounts.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission announced in late November that it would pilot a program in three spots where groups of two or more people can get in a cab for a reduced price.

“We hope that before the end of the year we’ll have at least three stands open,” TLC Chairman Matthew Daus told the Daily News at the time.
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