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City taxi passengers couldn’t hack a recent trivia quiz about the cab industry — striking out on more than half the questions.
The New York riders were asked a round of five questions — from a revolving total of about 30 — posted on computer screens in the backs of cabs between May 6 and the end of July, said officials with the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission.
The idea behind the program was to entertain riders during their trip while educating them on the history and “economics” of taxis in the city, the TLC said.
TLC Commissioner David Yassky said the results showed that many passengers don’t understand the realities of the business — for example, they think drivers take home more money than they actually do.
Only 26 percent of passengers were able to guess correctly that cabbies take home $130 per shift after their expenses, while 37 percent thought they made $180, and 21 percent thought $230.
“It turns out, unsurprisingly, that most passengers aren’t highly familiar with taxi economics,” Yassky told The Post.
“They’re not aware of how valuable the fleet medallions are, and also, unfortunately, drivers don’t earn as much as passengers think they do. It’s a hard job.”
Fewer than 30 percent of riders realized that the average hack works a 12-hour shift. About 34 percent thought drivers clocked in 10-hour days.
But New Yorkers were able to correctly guess the number of miles per day that the average cabby drives — 200 — and that taxi fleets own more than two-thirds of their valuable vehicle medallions.
Riders also were able to rank cities by their fares — with London having the steepest prices, followed by Los Angeles and then New York.
And eighty percent of passengers were savvy enough to know cabbies, by law, have to take them to the outer-boroughs, too, even the farthest reaches of Staten Island.
But some of the questions might even have given historians trouble. For example, one query involved whether there were more cabs in 1933 than now. The answer — yes — stumped 67 percent of riders.
“Just as [“Jeopardy!” host] Alex Trebek would, we wanted to give some stumpers,” Yassky said.
The TLC expects the quiz to become a recurring cab feature.