Get Your Fair Share: New Taxi Options Mean More Ways to Get Around

Do you work and play well with others? Do you like to share?
If so, you're a perfect candidate for the taxi fare-sharing program that will be rolled out this Friday, February 26 in New York. (You’re also ready for preschool, but that’s another story.)
“Group ride” rates are being started this week: Share a cab with strangers, and save big.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission is planning a series of initiatives that will be rolled out over the next year. First up: the yellow cabs will have drop-off and pick-up areas during the morning rush hour, 6 am to 10 am.
Also planned: Later in the year we’ll see “ride sharing,” where riders can hail cabs that already have passengers and split the fares. How will people know where the cabs are going? Some kind of signage will display the neighborhood towards which the cab is heading.
Starting Friday, cabs will depart from areas including West 57th Street and Eighth Avenue, with drop-offs on Park Avenue between 57th and 42nd Streets; West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue, with drop-offs on Park Avenue from 72nd Street to 42nd Street, and East 72nd Street and Third Avenue, with drop-offs on Park Avenue from 72nd Street to 42nd Street.
More than one person has to be in the cab for the discount to be applied, and fares per person will be $3 or $4, depending on location. Once a ride has started, no more passengers can be picked up.
Fewer vehicles on the street; more transportation options; less money for passengers to shell out: Sounds like this ride is going the right way.

NYC Cabbies Risk Accidents And Stay On Phones Despite Ban

If you rode in a New York City yellow taxicab recently, chances are the driver was yapping away on their Bluetooth earpiece or even on a handheld cell phone. Cabbies have actually been banned from using cell phones for a decade, even hands-free devices, a rule widely ignored and unenforced. Research shows drivers who use cell phones and hands-free devices while driving are four times as likely to cause an accident. Yet in New York City, the sight of a taxi driver using a cell phone is as common as jaywalking, which is also heavily overlooked.
It is a constant battle for New York City authorities as they struggle to find effective ways to handle the problem other than having passengers report cell phone abuse when they see it. It can be intimidating for passengers to ask cabbies absorbed in their conversation to not talk on the phone while driving.
During the first six months of 2009, authorities issued just 232 summonses for cell phone use in taxicabs. For the first six months of 2008, 411 summonses were issued. Drivers who are caught violating must pay a $200 fine.
Surprisingly, New York City is one of the stricter cities in the country for their no cell phone rule for cabbies. The same restrictions apply in Boston, while hands-free devices are permitted in Los Angeles, and cell phones are used in Denver and Miami.