I don't mind legalizing street hails for livery cabs. New Yorkers have been doing it for years. The only advantage now is meters will replaces haggling over a fare. That should make life easier for the driver. I do mind the TLC approving 2,000 more yellow taxi medallions. This is all about money. Mayor Bloomberg goes on and on about reducing our carbon footprint. But his lip service stops on a dime, when the dime leads to dollars.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to approve the "Five-Borough Taxi Plan" allowing livery cabs to pick up street hails in upper Manhattan and the other four boroughs. The City will now sell 18,000 permits in the next three years in hopes of increasing service in neighborhoods that are traditionally underserved.

Yellow taxi drivers opposed the plan, arguing the livery street hail permits will devalue the cost of their medallions. A permit costs $1,500 compared to medallions that have run as high as $1 million. Today's vote also allows for an additional 2,000 yellow cabs to cruise the streets looking for fares.

Are you pleased the TLC voted to legalize livery street hails in upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and on Staten Island? Does the potential for improved service outweigh the potential loss of business for yellow cab operators? Do you welcome an additional 2,000 yellow taxis to New York City?

Send your thoughts using the link above.

Just what we need more taxis and livery cabs cluttering our streets ,highways, and adding to the cost of gasoline and not to mention further fueling our dependency on oil, enough already, help save our planet, make the subways free!

Felix
Bay Ridge

John,

I’m all for street hails. What I am against is the government determining who can operate a taxi, a bus, a jitney, a whatever that rides on wheels and provides a ride for passengers.

Can anyone tell me why the government should exert monopoly control over and regulate private transactions between taxi owners and their passengers? Why can’t we tell the TLC and the Mayor to butt out?

If the esteemed mayor and his minions want to dictate how we live our lives, why don’t they go and join up forces with the North Koreans? They have the kind of grip on people’s lives that Bloomberg seems to envy.

Joe
Port Richmond, SI

Hi John,

Again I say that this mayor needs to mind his own business and stay out of ours. His prints are all over every whim that he has and ends up making it law and they all fail. WHAT ABOUT OUR SECURITY THAT WE HAD WHEN WE COULD CALL A PRIVATE COMPANY.

IT IS NERVE RACKING BECAUSE WE MIGHT GET THEIR, MAYBE, BUT HOW DO WE FEEL ASSURED THAT WE WILL GET BACK. THEN THERE STILL IS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN AND THIS IS PEOPLE THAT RIDE FREE UNDER SO CALLED NUMBERED ACCOUNTS. WHAT DOES THIS DICTATOR HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT. I DO KNOW THAT WHEN I HAVE TAKEN CABS AND MANY OF THEM ALMOST EVERY DAY THE OTHER PASSENGERS THAT YOU SHARE THE CAB WITH NEVER EVEN PAY NOR DO THEY GIVE A TIP. I ALSO WAS TOLD THAT IF PEOPLE WITH THESE NUMBERED ACCOUNTS GO TO THE AIR-PORTS AND THEY ARE ONLY CHARGED A $3.00 FEE.

Thank you John,
Maxxiee
mp

I am pleased. Even though Livery cabs have been picking up fares in Queens Bronx and Brooklyn all along, this makes it legal and the city makes a profit in fees and taxes.

Adelin W.
Jamaica
Queens

I happy this is taking place ...because ppl like me who live in Harlem where yellow cabs never stop for you ...this way I can catch a cab all the time

DEE...Harlem...

To the medallion owners who claim that allowing livery cabs to pick up street hails devalue their medallions: YOU devalued your own medallions by refusing to pick up Black, Hispanic, or Asian passengers, or passengers of any color or ethnicity wishing to travel beyond 96th St. in Manhattan. YOU willfully discriminated against huge portions of the City's population who wanted to use your legally-sanctioned service, and today's TLC vote is long-overdue payback.

PETE FROM MANHATTAN

While I do sympathize with the yellow owner-operators whose equity in their medallions has been sucker punched by the City's policy changes, the industry's petulant attitude is like rent-gouging landlords complaining about competition from affordable housing programs.

The bottom line is that, in any public or publicly regulated service delivery system, the people's interests come first and foremost, even if some business people who have invested speculatively sustain a loss. Add to this the disproportionately adverse impact the current system has on disabled travelers, and on the increasingly costly and problematic Access-a-Ride program, these remedies are a no-brainer that is long overdue.

Yes, driving a cab in NYC, whether yellow or livery, is a tough and dangerous job with long hours and relatively low pay, but, in a city as large and as populous as NYC, there will still be enough business to go around such that cabbies will be able to make a living and passengers will be able to find cabs and ride at rates they can afford.

BIG ANDY
Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn

I simply can't feel too bad for the yellow cab drivers who claim the new law will cut into their business. We have all seen yellow cab drivers routinely refuse to take people to certain areas of the city. If they are doing well enough to be able to refuse so much business, then they can't complain about livery cabs "taking their business."

-Jared W

i dont take taxi's but i was in San Francisco last september and had to wait over an hr and a half for a cab. i had to walk the 2 miles to get to a wedding rehearsal dinner. cabs should go to SF, California. if they would like to move its a good relocation!

Meghan

I'm not so sure it's such a good idea. When I'm in the outer boroughs I call a car service. I'm not standing on the street looking for a cab. They're usually there in 5 minutes unless it rush hour. Thy hailing a cab anywhere at rush hour.

Bobby G
East Village

Let Me get this straight. My mother is in a motorized wheelchair. and the only time I ever see those Yellow Cabs is when they are filled with passengers to and from the airports- any other time they are quite empty. And When I NEED a yellow cab, I can never get one without standing on a corner for 45 minutes to an hour. - They NEVER want to come to Harlem, or the Bronx or Brooklyn. So Why exactly should I feel sorry for them now that livery cabs are their official competition? Sometimes the only hope I have as a black man to get a cab

I am Sean and I am in Harlem. Honestly I think the whole darn system is flawed it needs to be scrapped and started from scratch

I can stop to think how happy those Indian drivers , who do not own a medallion but instead rent it, and have to work to pay the rent of that on top of what they need to make for their families are feeling now that they have the opportunity for independence.
I live in Sunnyside right out of manhattan the times I have had to wait in a cold train station, either I the city or in my neighborhood because yellow cab drivers don't stop and liberty cars don't have a meter are infinite.

This legislation is priceless for residents like who don't own a car but sometimes need one.

Aicardo & Sara

Hi John,

Every time I walk through Manhattan (several times a week), I never fail to see yellow cabs get hailed, and when the potential customer tries to open the rear door to enter, it’s locked, and until the customer tells the driver where he/she wants to go, that door stays locked unless the destination is apparently someplace the driver wants to go. More often than not, the cab drives off—WITHOUT THE CUSTOMER. Last week, I saw four yellow cabs lined up one behind the other at the South Street Seaport. Thinking that it looked odd, I watched from across the street as potential customer after potential customer was turned down and went to the cab behind it only to be turned down again and again. Since it was the Seaport, and seeing that most carried cameras, etc., it certainly appeared that the overwhelming majority of the potential customers were tourists. So not only have yellow cab drivers brought this upon themselves for constantly refusing fares, but they also give the city a bad name for tourists to take back home.

The TLC should put spotters in the streets to watch this in action and fine those drivers—SEVERELY!!!

Regards,
Walter,
New Dorp

Please tell callers that if they are refused service, they should call 311 - and we DO follow up! Also, 4 of the 9 TLC members (including me) are Mayoral appointees, but the other 5 are Council appointees!

David Yassky
TLC Commissioner

yellow cabs won't leave midtown, complaining it's a waste of time and $, then they get mad that someone else wants to serve outer borough? I say we teach them a lesson and fit each cab with and "auto-shut -off" device that will literally restrict yellow cabs to times sq. if they like driving tourists back and forth between Broadway shows...let them stay there forever. :-)

Thanks
xoxo,
Peppermint!

Today is a historic day, yellow cab drivers created this situation. if your not hungry for work and pick and choose when you want to go to the outer boroughs then others will gladly do it for you, America was built on "ill do what the other guy wont"

Leon
Kingshighway Brooklyn.

I'm a cab driver (not yellow one, the reg one ). If you make a survey you'll find out that most of the drivers don't agree, because we won't make the same kind of money we're making now after they install the meter. That's an imposition of the TLC and the Mayor because they want to make a lot of money selling these new medallions.

But like I hear from most of the people calling you right now , what is true, about that the yellow cabs don't want to go out of Manhattan, they've been doing that for ever and never stop doing that. so that's their fault that TLC approves letting us to pick passengers in the streets.

Ramon

I don't believe that gypsy cabs should be granted to "pick-up passengers from the street". The yellow-cabs have discipline and have been so through-out years to be conditioned and courteous. The gypsy cabs are not conditioned and must practice the rules and regulations as the yellow cabs have done so. I do know that outside of Manhattan it's hard to hail a yellow cab, so it would improve the services desperately needed in this area. If allowed gypsy cabs should be BANNED from Manhattan out of respect for the yellow cabs' business and since they deserve priority being first!

Christine
Maspeth

I think they shouldn't let out the gypsie cab because It will kill down the yellow cabs business. They need to end now.

Nathan

Just as a point of reference. From 1973 to 1976 I drove a yellow cab. During that time I could making enough to live on because drivers worked on a 50% commission basis. From 1976 to 1979 I drove a livery cab and made about 30% less money than when driving a yellow cab. From 1989 to 1989 I drove a yellow cab again and stopped after losing money in the attempt. The owners just charge to much to lease the cab so when the cab broke down (which was 20% of the time) I just lost the $150 to $200 that leasing the cab cost. In 1989 to 1990 I drove a livery cab and made 50% more that I did in the 1989 attempt at driving a yellow cab.

Gerald

Hi John;

I live on the east side of manhattan and the cabs drive with off duty lights and pick and choose who they want to drive where. Yellow cabs also go off duty at the same time; try getting a cab at rush hour. Cabbies need some competition; maybe they will start providing better service.

Best regards,
Kate

ps. Your show is really great !!

Usually, I hate everything the Bloomberg administration does, but this is a good thing. I am sick of Yellow Cabs refusing to take me over the bridge to Queens, like it is a foreign country or something. I've had them refuse even when I was escorting a handicapped lady and it was pouring rain. The Yellow cab drivers turn off their lights when they don't feel like working and are much too picky and nasty.

Frances
East Village

I've actually haggled with livery cabs. If you have $20, you can get from Astoria to Union Square.

Steve

Perhaps the cab drivers whining about loss of business should've thought about that before refusing to take me across the Williamsburg Bridge countless times. They're aren't enough yellow cabs on duty in Manhattan anyway

Rachael

I am afraid this whole issue has been seriously misrepresented.

Yes, on one hand, the behavior of some yellow cab drivers has definitely put off the public…as a night driver who now only works weekends I have seen it all, and now spend a majority of my time working Brooklyn and Queens believe it or not, and do not refuse fares going anywhere…the idea that yellow drivers as a group refuse to accept fares to the outer boroughs or work them when they are there is a cruel fraud.

Cab Drivers go where the business is, be they yellow or black.

The idea that Outer Borough Liveries will as Commissioner Yassky pontificated offer marginalized outer borough neighborhoods the same wonderful level of service as in midtown is a FRAUD.

Even with dramatically lower fees and operating expenses, the outer borough liveries will not be able to economically sustain cruising empty in neighborhoods where nobody makes street hails. They will naturally gravitate towards those areas where there is business.

Liveries have been picking up street hails for years…this is the city’s way of cutting itself in on the money of unregulated liveries—it’s all about fees and taxes and the city.

Likewise, the additional 2000 yellow medallions is another money grab by the city…there are too many yellow cabs on the streets as it is, and this will exacerbate the earning potential of drivers already out there. It will have the effect of driving professional drivers—not owners, DRIVERS—out of the industry.

Here is what is going to happen…it is going to become even harder to get yellows to go to Brooklyn and Queens if they have no chance of doing business in the boroughs, let alone getting back.

The liveries are going to be strapped with extra expenses, and are not going to be able to sustain economically with increased completion for a shrinking fare base.

The additional yellow medallions will not only lower the value of medallions, but they will dramatically decreases the amount of income shift drivers can earn, even as they increase congestion and pollution. Night shift drivers working weeknights now routinely make less than $50 on the average.

This program has been sold to the public as an enhancement of service.

It will have just the opposite effect: less business for yellow cabs in Manhattan; even fewer cabs willing to go to the outer boroughs; more and more liveries competing for less and less fares in the outer boroughs, and deserting the “neighborhoods” they are theoretically licensed to cruise in favor of those zones where there is business.

I know you think I am jiving. That makes me sad. What the Mayor is doing is going to have precisely the opposite effect…service is going to get worse.

This is the future…your future. Bon appetite.

Chip
Washington Heights

We have a great car service in my neighborhood which has been here many years. When I am anywhere I call them and they are there in split second time. They have cars situated all over and also when I use them to go anywhere you just ask what that fare is and you are told. They are courteous and helpful and I would never use a yellow car as I don't know who is driving. Several people I know have had bad experiences in yellow cabs with nasty drivers, those who won't listen when you tell them you'd like them to go a certain way. Meanwhile, their meters just keep registering......Thank you.

Patricia

The TLC made a good and long overdue decision; monopolies are only beneficial to those running it. Additionally,more taxis of a different variety available to the public means that yellow cabs will have to rethink their own biases, as their market bacame smaller. I look forward to the choice of not taking a yellow cab, just as I was passed by many because I'm not white..

Francisco

Im a livery driver & yellow cab driver - the most i have heard from yellow cab driver's are that they dont want to take a passenger to far from they are or if you dont look you have money they wont take & mostly dont knoe where they are going bcuz they dont have a GPS , in livery cabs they go where ever u going & even brake go out & help you in any help u need witch is not only just the fair

Angel from upper manhattan

first of all it is not a matter of public service. it is alll just about 5% that the credit card vendors are making and is a big favour to them .it is all about money and will be happen no matter if somebody is happy or not. MONEY TALK AND WHAT WALK WE ALL KNOW .

Gagan

For me it is good news for livery cabs to be allowed to pick up passengers in manhattan. my experience has been very bad living in lower manhattan yellow cabs rarely stop then demand to know where you are going probably because I am a minority. and live on 11th street but that doesn't seem to matter to yellow cabs. I only wish it applied to ALL OF MANHATTAN! LOWER AND UPPER MANHATTAN!

Jean
manhattan