NY1: Transit

NY1: Transit
The city's taxi & limousine commission has voted to extend handicap accessible taxis from 80 to 143 as well as allowing those needing the service to be able to call 311 to find the closest handicap accessible taxi to their location. One has to ask oneself how in the world would the 311 operator know where these 143 taxis? These 143 obviously will have GPS/credit-card terminals that cause this year's 2 taxi strikes.

So is the Taxi Worker's Alliance ultimately anti-handicap? It is just might lowly opinion that Taxi Worker's Alliance attempt to organize the city's taxi driver flailing, in large part because the premise of protesting against GPS devices instead the economics of it (ie. let the TLC or advertising company pay for the equipment and installation).

Taxi Strike

The Village Voice: Runnin' Scared

Ed Ott is a good man, but my observation of Grand Central at 9:00PM this morning showed a 3-taxi-line out in front at the taxi stand. It was less than usual but was not harmful to the commuters, or tourists. Taxis are by nature a luxury good, but there really could not be legit complaints about adding credit card terminals, GPS maps for customers (though not useful to the driver), and advertising to taxis. The payment of the devices and any service fees should be paid by the advertising delivered by the devices but Ms. Desai of the Taxi Worker Alliance have never even come close to such an argument. If privacy while off duty is the problem the few striking taxi drivers should push forward that when the meter is turned to off duty the GPS is off, but that has not been put forward giving the perception that they do not want anyone even from distance to be looking over their shoulders while working. The fear of taxi drivers loosing their privacy while on the clock, I've got one response... welcome to the real world. Whenever I'm working I'm accountable to my boss to actually work, if anyone is ashamed of what they do while on the job they should probably find another job.

Last week we saw the MTA roll out over a 100 buses equiped with GPS devices tracking the locations of the buses being instantly communicated to bus stops and a website. The effectively militant Transport Workers Union (TWU) had no problem with their members being tracked while on the job, but the disorganized, non-unionized taxi cab drivers some how do and get the support of NYC AFL-CIO Executive Director Ed Ott. Sorry cabbies, no more driving tourists and clueless pigeon passengers around in cirlces. Sorry , no more refusing fares to the outer boroughs. Sorry, you guys just have to suck it up.