City Announces New Initiative To Get Hybrid Cabs On The Roads
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The city is looking for other ways to get fuel-efficient cabs on the street, after a federal judge shot down its original plan.
The city launched a new incentive program today to encourage taxi owners to purchase fuel-efficient cars.
The program allows owners to increase fees they charge drivers for leasing hybrids, while decreasing fees for non-fuel-efficient cars.
The city says although drivers will pay more in fees, the thousands of dollars in fuel savings will more than make up the difference.
Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked the city from requiring cabs to be fuel efficient, saying it's up to federal agencies, not the city, to regulate those standards.
The head of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, an owners group, "It is deeply troubling that the city is attempting to do an end run-around a federal court ruling that halted an ill-conceived hybrid taxi mandate."