The taxi/ livery plan the legislature passed in Albany is sure to fail because it ignores economic reality. Giving 30,000 liveries the right to accept street hails will disappoint supporters, disrupt beneficial relationships, and likely ruin cab service for everyone.
The law’s purpose is to provide street hail service in areas presently without street hail service. But street hail service is only viable in dense areas where cabbies know that riders regularly appear. Taxis nowhere in the world provide regular street hail service in neighborhoods that lack the requisite density of demand. Instead taxi service is provided on-call. New York liveries provide good on-call service. True, there are areas throughout the City like Fordham Road which could support street hail service or cab stands to serve as street hail locations. The Bloomberg Administration wrongly rejected both options.
Instead, the Bloomberg Administration has opted for a plan that has the potential to destroy the taxi industry. Many successful on-call taxi businesses will likely fail without the control of drivers that calling in provides. This means worse on-call taxi service for much of the city since street hail cabbies cruise where the business is, not where an occasional passenger wants a ride.
