Catching a taxi may soon be an alternative to the subway for commuters outside Manhattan. The State Assembly swiftly passed a bill allowing livery cabs to pick up passengers who are hailing a taxi throughout the five boroughs, though the bill is stalled in the Senate.
The original proposal came from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who took the legislation to Albany because it faced certain failure in City Council—where many members have ties to the taxi industry.
For their part, yellow cab drivers have flocked to Albany and City Hall in protest. Bloomberg’s move to take the city issue to a state level has been generally mocked.
“The entire taxi industry was blindsided by this,” Ethan Gerber, the executive director of the Greater New York Taxi Association, told The New York Times. “Legislators from the Bronx are not reaching out to try and control sanitation or fire issues in Rochester or Syracuse. We generally don’t have a lot of business in Albany because it’s a local issue.”
While the move could prove successful, its delay in the Senate, alongside the marriage equality act, has opponents and proponents on edge—though it is unclear if Governor Cuomo would even sign the bill.
The taxi industry has largely said this would be a job killer, but Bloomberg and advocates say the bill will bring taxi services to thousands of underserved residents.
The bill will provide up to 30,000 livery drivers with permits to pick up street hails in upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs. Each permit would cost $1,500. Additionally, the Taxi and Limousine Commission would be authorized to sell up to 1,500 new yellow cab medallions.
The bill passed the State Assembly by a vote of 110 to 28.
“The State Assembly passed landmark legislation that would dramatically improve the transportation options for New Yorkers who live in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Upper Manhattan,” Bloomberg said. “Under the legislation, the residents of those areas—who make up 80 percent of all New Yorkers—would be able to hail a new class of taxi cab in their neighborhoods, free from worries about whether the car is safe, or whether they will have to haggle over the price.”
He noted that yellow cabs would continue to have exclusive right to pick up passengers at the airports and lower Manhattan—areas, as most outer borough residents know, that yellow cabs rarely stray far from.
by David J. Harvey
