The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission voted 7-2 Thursday in favor of the five borough taxi plan which will allow livery cabs to pick up street hails in Upper Manhattan and the other four boroughs. The commission-approved plan taking effect in June contains rules covering livery hail cabs, as well as traditional livery cars and yellow taxis.
The city will now be able to issue 18,000 permits for livery cabs which can pick up street hails above 96th Street on the east side and 110th Street on the West Side.
The rates will be the same as ones used in yellow cabs.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and and the TLC claim the plan will also increase service to under-served areas besides Manhattan.
However, yellow cab owners disagree, claiming it will devalue the high cost of their medallions.
“People want to make what we worked hard for. Let ’em go on the same route we went on. I didn’t grow up easy. Our biggest enjoyment was buying a bottle of cream soda on Sunday. So everybody wants what I got,” argued one yellow cab driver.
“They’re picking up passengers today in Midtown Manhattan, Downtown Manhattan, at the airports. They’re not picking up passengers in Pelham and in Corona, and in Sheepshead Bay,” said TLC Commissioner David Yassky.
Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill back in December allowing the city to issue the new permits.
The bill also allows the city to issue an additional 2,000 yellow cab medallions.
Meantime, the vote comes just a day after the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade sued to prevent the new rules from advancing.
If the lawsuit is successful, it could jeopardize $1 billion of revenue the city planned to get from the sale of the new medallions.
(Source: NY1)
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One Response
This is about time. But it doesn’t go far enough. The limit on medallions should be gradually eliminated. 100 new medallions should be auctioned off every month, for as long as it takes until the price fetched drops to the administrative cost of issuing them. That will take a few years, so those who paid exorbitant amounts for their medallions have time to consider their options, but ultimately there is no moral or constitutional justification for a government-enforced monopoly that extracts so much money from the public. The very fact that a medallion sells for so much proves how big the rip-off is.