Where do you want taxi stands put in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and Northern Manhattan? Those are the places the new Boro Taxis serve (the green livery cars that you can now legally hail in the street). The Boro Taxi system was created because enough people in authority realized these facts of life: Many drivers of yellow cabs refuse to cruise the streets of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and Northern Manhattan to find passengers. Many also refuse to drive passengers from Manhattan to the other four boroughs and to Northern Manhattan. On the street map here, choose where you want the stands. The instructions on how to put your suggestions on the map are basically to move the map around until the crosshair is on the location you want, and then click on the green box that says "Suggest a Location." You can include your reasons for choosing those locations and also pick all the times of day you'd use them--early morning, midday, evening, and late night. If the hail symbol shown above is already on a place you were going to suggest, someone else already suggested it. Add your voice of support by clicking on "I'd use this!" You can also comment and pick the times of day you would use the stand.
The
first "street hail livery cars" hit the road a few days ago. At long last, a pre-arranged pick-up isn't a legal requirement to get a ride from a car
service/livery car driver in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island and
north of E. 96th Street and W.
110th Street in
Manhattan. Car service/livery car drivers will still be breaking a law if they pick up passengers who are flagging them down in
Manhattan south of E. 96th Street and W.
110th Street and at LaGuardia and Kennedy airports. Those are considered prime
areas for yellow cabs. The yellows will, as before, be allowed to make on-street pick-ups anywhere. The
five-borough taxi hail plan was devised to help residents and visitors
travel to and from locations that yellow cab drivers often choose not to
go to. The practice dates back to the 1970s, a time when yellow cab drivers became crime victims all too often. Livery and gypsy cab drivers became victims too, in even greater numbers. At that time, Brooklyn's Black Pearl Car Service distinguished livery cars from yellow cabs by adopting the motto "We're not yellow, we go anywhere." Over the next three years, New
York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) will issue 6,000 street
hail livery permits (also known as boro taxi licenses) per year. Twenty percent of livery cars
will be required to be wheelchair-accessible. The TLC is also going to sell 2,000 new medallions for wheelchair-accessible yellow cabs. The electronic hailing (e-hail) pilot program has gone into effect--yellow cabs can legally be hailed via smartphone applications like Uber and Hailo.
