Having trouble flagging a cab?
Mayor Bloomberg says that if he has his way, Gothamites will find it easier to hail a taxi — and enjoy a better ride. That’s the idea behind two city initiatives that have now run into some serious litigation.
The first is the “Taxi of Tomorrow,” a Nissan NV200 that represents the first custom remodel for the New York since the iconic Checker. The Greater New York Taxi Association is suing, claiming that the winning Nissan is not a hybrid as mandated by New York law — and that the city doesn’t have the right to specify a particular vehicle.
The other development is a pilot program called e-hail that was supposed to start Friday. This would allow New Yorkers to order up taxis through an app on their smartphones. The e-hail concept is behind new services such as Get Taxi, Taxi Magic and Uber, which flourished elsewhere.
Unfortunately they have found the Big Apple’s highly regulated market tough going. On top of this, the pilot program is now being sued by livery cab owners who fear the new competition.
All of which should remind New Yorkers that the real “taxi of tomorrow” won’t be any one vehicle or app. It will be a market-oriented arrangement in which passengers — and not some city agency — decide which service is best, which fleets should survive and which cars should be on the road. Looks like a long wait.