Livery (gypsy) cabs allowed to pick up street hails in he outer boroughs... what else is new.

So what is the significant change from yesterday's court decision on the city's taxis? Livery cabs practice of picking of street cabs that previous was "illegal" has now been codified and the Lincoln Town Car which had  been out of production for 5 years will be replaced by apple-green Priuses as the standard livery car. 3 years from now there will be no longer any confusion whether or not that 2010 black Toyota Avalon is privately owned car or a livery car seeking an illegal street hail, since all livery cabs will be an ugly green color with a TLC designed logo on the side.

Yesterday New York State Court of Appeals sided with New York City's Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) regarding allowing livery cabs picking up street hails in the outer boroughs and Northern Manhattan. Yellow cab medallion owners were quick to complain that 18,000 additional cabs picking up street hails will detrimentally affect them. On weekends I do see yellow cabs out here in Queens-- in front of the independent driver's house or apartment parked on their day off; outside of the parked yellow cabs I have never seen a yellow cab that was available to be hailed in Queens. It has never been against any TLC regulation for yellow cabs to pick up street hails outside of Manhattan and yet they have never done so.

The typical livery cab servicing the outer boroughs is a black Lincoln Town Car, that is regulated to only pick up passengers via their dispatcher. In actuality livery cabs in the outer borough congregate at transportation hubs and shopping centers picking up street hails as well as offering their service to the people at bus stops as they futilely wait for a bus running ridiculously behind schedule.




http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/18-000-cabs-street-hails-article-1.1364855

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).