The Taxi and Limousine Commission is expected to vote on a plan to let livery cars pick up passengers on the street outside the heart of Manhattan.
If the new rules pass Thursday, it would allow 18,000 livery drivers to buy permits to collect people on curbs in upper Manhattan and the four other boroughs.
Advocates say that would benefit millions of people in areas where yellow cabs aren’t prevalent.
But owners of the city’s signature yellow cabs have sued to stop it. The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade says the plan is unfair to yellow cab owners who paid hefty fees for what has been an exclusive citywide right.
City lawyers say they’re confident the plan meets legal requirements.
(Source: NBC New York)
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2 Responses
It would be a simple legal matter to go back to the capitalist approach, and allow any car and driver to pick up passengers for hire. No medallions. No need to bribe politicians for licenses, or to keep the number of cars at a certain level. New York should really have more faith in Adam Smith.
Akuperma, medallion owners have paid fortunes for them, and it would be heartless (though morally appropriate) to pull the rug out from under them all at once, and render their lives’ savings worthless. So the system should be phased out gradually by auctioning a set number of new medallions every month, indefinitely, until the price of a new medallion drops to the administrative cost of issuing them. Then they should be available for that price to anyone who has a license.