Taxi Driver Online

City Considers Adding 900 New Cabs

In preparation for the possible addition of 900 new yellow cabs to city streets, the Bloomberg administration is conducting an environmental and traffic study at five key Manhattan intersections.

Data collection is to be completed by the end of the year -- just in time for a possible Taxi and Limousine Commission vote in January that could also include a fare increase.

The freshly-minted medallions would mark the biggest increase in 65 years and the first crop of new cab licenses since 1997, when the city added 400, commission spokesman Allen Fromberg said yesterday.

Bloomberg, who received state approval for the new medallions this spring, says the increase will mean a $190 million windfall for the city -- providing the influx doesn't depreciate the value of each medallion from its current level of $225,000.

"The conventional wisdom is that adding 900 won't have any appreciable impact on their value," Fromberg said. The Bloomberg proposal would increase the hack fleet by about 7 percent over the 12,187 vehicles that presently ply the streets.

The study, conducted by Urbitran Associates, an engineering firm, is examining how the addition of 300, 600 or 900 taxis would affect carbon monoxide at intersections, including Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street; Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; Broadway, Columbus Avenue and 65th Street; Third Avenue and 57th Street and Broadway and 34th Street.

John Orcutt, associate director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, which monitors traffic levels in the city, said the study will likely find the new cabs have more of an impact on traffic than pollution.

"A few extra cars sitting around in Manhattan aren't a make-or-break issue," Orcutt said. "It's the congestion they need to be worried about. The traffic isn't as bad as it was during the boom in the 1990s, but it's going to hit unprecedented levels when the economy picks up again. The city needs to start dealing with that now, while there's still some time."
********************************************************

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm !!!!!!!!

So the plate premium goes straight to the council, all $190,000,000 of it.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm !!!!!!!!

So if that happened over here, we would have 15,000 X $225,000 = $3.3 billion dollars.

Or a couple of weeks takings for the London HC boys.

Alex

The thing is someone has got to get that money back somehow.

So in the end it's the mug punter paying over the top for a sub-standard service.

Some awful people would say that's the situation here with plate premiums, and the councils don't get a bean.

Well, 15,000 X zilch, because 15,000 is the de-limited number and thus the plates won't be worth anything.

But the $3 billion dollars IS around the total worth of the New York taxi medallion market.

Just shows the rank hypocrisy (geddit?) of the supposed land of the free and the bastion of free markets and all such double standards.

But New York city is in dire financial straits, and the plate issue is to help bale out billionare Mayor Bloomberg.

Dusty

I do not follow the story, should the headline read New York to sell 900 new medallions? If so what a great idea to implement over here. Then people can put their money where their mouths are.I very much doubt it though.
Ged

I have just re-read my reply and would like to make it clear I was not referring to the 3 previous writers. Apologies if that is what it looks like
Ged

I think the difference between over there and over here, is that most over here are driven by those who buy the plates.

Over there, people buy them just to rent them out to anyone.

But $225,000 is a little bit out of my league.

Alex

Is that Press Release actually for real !!!!!!!! ??????????

It contains some of the most incredible nonsense I have ever seen.

More Taxis = More carbon monoxide and more cars??????????

Jesus wept!

When are these people gonna look at the previous factual studies, and see that more taxis and more investment in public transport equals less carbon monoxide and less traffic congestion !

If one taxi does 30 jobs a day, thats possibly as many as 30 less car journeys. Thus, 30 less cars in the city and on the roads leading in and out of the city.

Hmmm. Multiply that by 900, and we have a potential saving maybe of up to 27,000 less cars in the city. The fundamental difference between a car and a taxi, is that the taxi is used by more than one person in its working day, and does not thus need as many parking spaces, or journeys in and out of the city.

Obviously, the savings in car journeys would not be so great as that. But would clearly be a lower figure than without the 900 new cabs.

On environmental issues, more cabs will always be a winner. They are more easily regulated than the private car for starters.

I think when you are talking billions of dollars, then the green issues are found very much near the bottom of the problem pile.

If at all.

There is a good piece in this months TAXItalk, they have not had a rise since 1996 in New York. I wonder then why the plate costs so much.

_________________
taxi driver @manchester airport

Un-believable.

But as most of the drivers are immigrants, clearly the New York City Council don't give a dam.

Land of the free, oh really !!!!!!!

Alex