Home Taxis Time running out on livery cab bill as Cuomo stalls

Time running out on livery cab bill as Cuomo stalls

by Benjamin Kabak

In a week or so, the ambitious plan to improve transportation options for New Yorkers who live north of 96th St. and outside of Manhattan will expire as it awaits Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature. The bill, finally presented the governor earlier this week, has been subjected to a tremendous amount of back-and-forth. Even though it has the support of the state Assembly and Senate, the governor has found ways to criticize it.

As Kathleen Horan summarized for WNYC, the hangup seems to concern accessibility issues. Cuomo claims that stakeholders want more licenses for cabs that are wheelchair-accessible while also noting that no one will buy these expensive vehicles. In reality, the medallion owners are using their lobbying influence to sway the vote.

Horan explains:

Following the summit, Cuomo said “even though government comes with the best of intentions, to redesign a system, there can be unanticipated consequences.” He said one of the main sticking points in the plan to allow livery cars to accept street hails is wheelchair accessibility — and if anyone would purchase accessible permits since the vehicles are more expensive.

“The industry says that nobody is going to buy those permits because it’s not economically feasible. They can’t afford to buy the cars given the revenue. That’s a big hole in the current plan,” Cuomo explained.

He added another key issue to be worked out is how the plan would be enforced. The governor has until next week to veto or sign before the bill before it expires. If he does sign, it’ll likely to be contingent on significant changes to the bill happening through a chapter amendment.

By and large, these are red herrings designed to obscure the fact that medallion owners — and not taxi drivers or residents — are fighting against the bill. They have something to lose while the rest of us have something to gain. The Times urged Cuomo to sign off on the measure yesterday, and I could not agree more.

In other taxi news, check out this great story on what it takes to test drive a taxi. In the heart of Arizona, Nissan engineered have rigged up a course that approximates the bumps, bruises and potholes of New York’s suffering city streets. The Taxi of Tomorrow must be built to withstand the streets of today.

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2 comments

Al D December 15, 2011 - 11:44 am

It’s clear that Cuomo has little interest in improving transit for NYers whereas his predecessor was leaps and bounds better.

So far, he’s run off Walder and Ward, killed any transit options for the TZ, lessened MTA’s subsidies with only a vague promise to replace them, and prefers for illegal street hails to continue in lieu of legalization.

He seems pretty disconnected from transit to me.

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Miles Bader December 15, 2011 - 10:33 pm

sooooo is there anything Cuomo is connected with?!

He seem to be playing the “spoiled child of a famous politician” role—raised in a rarefied atmosphere, lots of name recognition and contacts, but very little clue about what the public actually wants—to a T so far… It almost always ends in tears, but not before a lot of damage has been done.

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