Riding Taxi Across the Street

For those living in the city, a ten-minute ride in a yellow cab may alleviate the sweat that could have been caused from blazing heat in the summertime. It can also obviate the possibility of getting lost if you happen to be traveling in large cities like Los Angeles or New York City.

But, with people living in the cities that are smaller and still have a series of private taxies, they may not always be able to find the one by hailing on the street and soon find themselves to be enervated as a fewer number of taxis mean a longer time of "sitting, waiting, wishing" (a reference to Jack Johnson's song). Anyway, this brings to the interesting event that I read about recently: "gypsy cab in 1971."

Even if you have never been to New York City, you should still be all aware of yellow cabs, or medallion taxis, that rule the streets and continue to remain pervasive. At least in part to a well-known TV show from Discovery Channel called Cash Cab, most people are familiar with seeing yellow cabs in NYC. Along with yellow cabs though, there have been other non-approved taxis that supposedly compete against the approved yellow cabs; these "competitions" are what many call "gypsy cabs" (or lively cabs).

A lawyer defending the illegal practices of gypsy cabs once said, "[Arranged rides] might work in middle-class areas where everyone has a telephone to call for a cab, but in the ghetto areas, you've simply got to have cabs that cruise. The medallion cabs won't do it, so our people do it."¹ Possibly in response to the growing complaints from medallion cabs, in 1967, New York City mandated all approved taxis to be painted yellow, setting them apart from unapproved ones and improving the chance of them being recognized.² Who would have thought that competition for survival was one of the reasons for yellow cabs being yellow?

The story is still an ongoing one. Only two months ago, another article pointed out a possible legislation that shook up people in taxi industry. If this bill passes, then following the purchases of permits that cost $1,500, non-yellow cab owners have wider range of areas that they can response to street hails in Manhattan.³ It is another endless battle that involves economic interests and convenience of people.

For people waiting to ride taxis, accretion of the number of cabs, whether they are yellow or not, can be viewed as inevitable, given the rapid growth of a lot of other things in it. Also, it may not be such a bad idea to continue to have competitions so that no one type of cab aggrandizes excessively and drives up the already-expensive cost of riding in the cab.

To a certain degree, this has already started since the medallions are worth more money as time progresses. Overall, this may be the "joy" for living in New York City for some people, where modern developments in technology and anachronistic struggle among taxis coexist.

Works Cited

1. Michael M. Grynbaum. "Taxi-Industry Battle Continues, With Echoes of 1971," The New York Times, August 1, 2011. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/a-taxi-industry-battle-continues-with-echoes-of-1971/?scp=1&sq=abdicate&st=cse

2. "A history of the New York cab," The Daily Telegraph, May 4, 2011. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8491507/A-history-of-the-New-York-cab.html

3. Michael M. Grynbaum. "Bloomberg, Bypassing City Council, Asks Legislature to Allow Street Hails of Livery Cabs," The New York Times, June 19, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/nyregion/bloomberg-seeks-to-allow-street-hails-of-livery-cabs.html?_r=1