Taxiing Out of Manhattan
MAY 27, 2011
There is a certain amount of strategizing necessary to ensure taxi service to destinations outside Manhattan. Slide in quickly. Slam the door. And use your best "low talker" voice as you say where you want to go.
If you're lucky, the taxi driver will start the meter and step on the gas pedal before saying: "What?"
Repeat, a little louder this time.
By the time the driver realizes the excursion is going to take more than 10 minutes, require battling traffic through the inevitably congested tunnels or bridges and may not yield a return fare, it's too late. You're on your way home. Victory!
Roland Yampolsky knows the drill. The real problem, the Rego Park resident says, comes when the rear doors are locked (which, incidentally, is a violation of city rules). "You know right away when you're going to be rejected because they'll ask you where you're going before they even stop," he said. "If the doors are locked, there's nothing you can do."
Yellow-cab drivers' refusals to venture to neighborhoods outside of Manhattan have been a perennial problem in this city of five boroughs—not one. By law, drivers are required to take passengers anywhere within the city, as well as in Nassau and Westchester counties (who knew?) and Newark Airport.
These days, arguments involving cab drivers—some violent—are occasionally recorded and go viral. In March, a taxi driver was charged with felony vehicular assault after refusing to drive a group of passengers to the Bronx and allegedly running his car into them.
Taxi and Limousine Commission officials say refusal complaints are up 35% between January and the end of April compared with the same period last year. They project a 6% increase by year's end. (Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week signed into law legislation that will increase fines against cab drivers who refuse fares.) The number of complaints that result in summons issued for hearings is lower. There were 523 in 2010 and 193 through the end of April this year.
In response, the wheels of non-Manhattan borough justice grind each week on the 19th floor of the Taxi and Limousine Commission's Manhattan office. Here, the courtroom is smaller than a principal's office. The administrative-law judge sits at a desk. And the complainant is swearing to tell the truth and nothing but the truth over a speakerphone as a morose cabbie—and usually his attorney—look on. (So much for confronting your accuser in person.)
"Hello, this is Cat," said a woman answering the phone on a recent morning.
The prosecutor, Peter Carnival, announced that she was in a courtroom and asked her to recall where she was on Sept. 24, 2010, at 11:07 p.m. "I was standing on the northwest corner of Broadway and Fourth Street," the woman said.
The doors were locked, she testified, and the driver rolled down the passenger-side window. "We said Brooklyn and he drove away," she said.
The Fort Greene resident estimated that she gets denials 15% to 20% of the time. "When I say I'm going to Brooklyn I fully expect them to say no," she said. "I've even been kicked out of a cab once."
During another hearing, Alberto Andrade alleged that a cab driver started driving away while his hand was still on the door. Mr. Andrade actually lives in Manhattan but was hailing a cab for a friend who lives outside the borough—all the way in Dumbo.
"I almost got dragged by the car," he said. "The guy just literally locked the door and turned on the off-duty sign and took off."
For cabbies, it turns out that Queens is the most favored non-Manhattan borough, and that's not because it's home to the best kebabs and chai. The reason is that the airports pretty much guarantee a return fare.
Brooklyn is viewed as a pain because of the Brooklyn Bridge: lots of traffic. And from the Bronx it can be near impossible to get a return fare. Ditto with Staten Island.
Cab drivers and their advocates say the city doesn't understand how the industry works.
While getting a return fare is a worry, as is getting lost, the biggest problem, they say, is traffic and logistics. Most drivers share cabs and the day shift ends at 5 p.m. That's when they must be at the garage for shift changes, which nearly always take place in Manhattan or Queens.
Jose C. Bataller says he never refuses a fare unless someone asks to go to JFK Airport between 3:30 and 5 p.m. "I say I can't get back to my garage by 5 p.m.," he explained. "People understand."
Cab driver Sushil Shrestha recalled a recent trip to Staten Island with a $60 fare. Great, except the passengers didn't pay. "They didn't pay the fare and punched me in the face," he said. "I don't want to waste my time going to Staten Island then. But if we say no, we have to come here." And so there he was at the TLC Manhattan office earlier this week at a refusal hearing.
In March, the city got a bunch of Baruch College students to do an undercover study. According to the TLC, they averaged a 50% refusal rate, compared with the agency's inspectors, who average a 4% to 6% rate.
I conducted my own highly scientific study, hailing cabs to the Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Location: University Place and 12th Street.
Time: 7:20 p.m.
Me (through a rolled-down window): "Can you go to the Bronx?"
Driver: Shakes his head no.
Me: "Why not?"
Driver: "You know, my wife, she's about to give birth. Any other time."
The second cab driver was willing to take me provided I had directions.
Me: "You don't have a map? I thought you were required to?"
Him: "No, I don't have one. If you know how to get there, I'll take you. I feel bad."
When I changed the location to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, it was the same tune. One driver was willing to go but said he didn't know how to get there and didn't have a map (which is a TLC requirement). "I'll get lost," he said, apologetically.
To be fair, as many other drivers agreed to take me to Bay Ridge, Riverdale and Coney Island. So I was averaging a 50% rate, like the Baruch students. But every time I got into the cab first and closed the door before stating my destination, my success rate was nearly 100%.
TLC Commissioner David Yasskey says the bump in complaints—which began in the middle of 2010—is probably due to increases in both reporting and refusals.
"Virtually every Brooklynite who from time to time hails a taxi will have a story about being refused service," he said.
Well, that excludes a certain Brooklynite: Mr. Yasskey.
"I work for the government," he said. "I tend to take the subway."
Source; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj
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