Seek Expansion Of Yellow Cab Service To Boros Outside Manhattan
BY JOHN TOSCANO

Liu introduced a bill last week to create taxi stands at major transportation hubs that would be financed by part of the approximately $141 million the city raised from the sale of 308 medallions, he said.

City Councilmember John Liu, joined by colleagues Leroy Comrie and David Weprin, urged the Bloomberg mayoral administration last week to use some of the windfall profits from the recent taxi medallion auction to expand yellow taxicab service in communities outside the Manhattan central business district.

Liu (D-Flushing), chairman of the council Transportation Committee, stated: "The incredible profits from the recent medallion sale show that the taxi industry is robust and the city should use these profits to reinvest in the industry, create more opportunities for growth and make citywide taxi service a reality."

Liu introduced a bill last week to create taxi stands at major transportation hubs that would be financed by part of the approximately $141 million the city raised from the sale of 308 medallions, he said.

The city had projected that it would raise about $65 million from the taxi medallion sales, but the total sales skyrocketed to over $141 million, Liu said. The ink was hardly dry on the sales documents before Liu and the other councilmembers started to draft the legislation for expanding cab service to the other boroughs.

Comrie stated: "This legislation is about fairness and equity in the transportation network."

"Taxi drivers like to be in Manhattan because they can easily pick up passengers," Liu explained. "But these new taxi stands [the legislation calls for] will create strategic locations where passengers and drivers come together. By matching supply and demand, the taxi stands will be a win-win effort."

Joining Liu, Comrie (D-St. Albans) stated: "This legislation is about fairness and equity in the transportation network."

Comrie, chair of the Consumer Affairs Committee, added, "We must transform a yellow taxicab system that only serves people in Manhattan into one that benefits all New Yorkers as well as the business community throughout the five boroughs."

Weprin (D-Hollis), Finance Committee chair, noted, "Taxis are an affordable means of transportation that provide a great service to the people of New York City. I live in a district where most people have never had access to yellow cabs. This bill will help to correct that by increasing the availability of cabs to communities in the five boroughs."

Further support was voiced by Councilmembers Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) and James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows).

Vallone, who heads the Public Safety Committee, stated, "The outer boroughs have been neglected for too long and deserve the same yellow cab service the residents of Manhattan take for granted."

Gennaro, chair of the Environmental Protection Committee, declared, "The recent sales of accessible and green medallions have brought New York's taxi fleet forward into a new era and we need to continue that push forward with taxi stations."

With Liu's strong support, a taxi stand was established in his district in Downtown Flushing's transit hub in 2003, since then generating more than 51,000 rides. The new legislation would require the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) to establish the new taxi stands at major transportation hubs currently underserved by yellow taxicabs, Liu said. The TLC could then examine the success of these stands over a threeyear period and use that information to make citywide taxi service permanent.

Local business leaders Peter Koo and Timothy Chuang, directors of the Flushing Business Improvement District (BID), as well as Jason Rosensweig, owner of the Linden Taxi Company near Flushing, also came out in support of the legislation.

Also speaking about the success of the Flushing Main Street experiment, Jean Barrett, director of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, stated: "At Flushing Main Street, we have proven that yellow taxicab service exists in neighborhoods outside of Midtown Manhattan and that taxi drivers are willing to come here and help passengers complete their journeys to other points in Queens and beyond.

"We have learned what works and what doesn't work, and based on this model of success, we believe that dispatched yellow taxi stands can work at other busy transit hubs outside of Manhattan."

Yellow taxicab service provides metered taxi rides in cabs that can be hailed. Other than that, transportation service is provided by radio dispatched cabs. Charges are based on fixed fees for fixed distances. Other service is provided by private drivers operating at transit hubs or subway stations.