The art of hailing a taxi is no longer a necessary skill for tourists and city slickers. The Court of Appeals—the state’s highest court—recently made their unanimous decision to give the green light to the Five Boro Taxi plan. The plan was previously blocked by the New York State Supreme Court back in August.
Since no further appeals can be made, there will soon be hail livery service in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and in Manhattan north of 96th Street. The new taxis will be granny smith apple green.
Additionally, the city will be selling 2,000 medallions for wheelchair-accessible yellow taxicabs, projected to create $1 billion in revenue in the upcoming years for the city.
“It should be as easy to hail a cab in East Flatbush as it is on the Upper East Side,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. “Millions of hard working New Yorkers who live outside the Manhattan core are treated like second-class citizens.”
However, David Yassky, commissioner and chairperson of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, said that the decision was “a great loss to millions of New Yorkers outside of Manhattan, as well as for the professional livery drivers whose ability to feed their families by providing a popular service their communities want and deserve is now in jeopardy.”
Additionally, there will be an app available to hail a yellow taxi via smartphone.
“In New York City in 2013, common sense and the free market say that you should be able to use your smart phone to get a cab, and that’s why we created a pilot program to allow users to do just that” said Bloomberg. “This decision will allow our e-hail program to move forward, and give New Yorkers another way to hail a cab. Some in the industry want to protect their business interests by blocking the use of new technology – but innovation is good for customers, and we will continue to encourage it.”
More to follow.
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