Heaven help taxicab drivers who bought into Bloomberg administration propaganda that hybrid cabs would end up saving so much money from greater fuel efficiency.
As The Post reports, hybrids appear to break down more than traditional gas-only cars — thus eating up efficiency “savings.”
Driver Ahmed Tijani’s Toyota Camry hybrid spontaneously caught fire; repairs cost $13,000.
Placida Robinson, after buying a discounted medallion that allows her to purchase only hybrids, has now gone through two such vehicles in six years.
Her unhappy experience includes having to buy seven batteries for the first car; multiple fixes on the second ran $15,000.
Alas, she’s stuck; the TLC won’t let her get a non-hybrid of her choice.
New Yorkers, however, should take some comfort in the knowledge that this situation could have been worse — for passengers and drivers.
Back in 2007, the Bloomberg administration unveiled its PlanNYC 2030.
The “green city” proposal included a unilateral decision to force the entire city taxi industry to convert to hybrids.
Fleet owners rebelled and filed suit — claiming that the city overstepped its bounds in trying to set fuel-mileage standards, a responsibility traditionally left to the federal government.
More significant, having seen the early hybrids — essentially remodeled passenger cars rather than purpose-built vehicles designed to take the everyday wear and tear of taxis — most owners concluded the cars were far less safe than the traditional, sturdy Crown Victorias that New Yorkers had grown to know and love.
The owners, thankfully, won in federal court. Otherwise, a host of drivers might have found themselves in the same straits as Tijani and Robinson.
The lawsuits forced the city to go another route in seeking greater fuel efficiency.
Thus, the so-called “Taxi of Tomorrow” will hit the streets next year — the product of input from drivers, owners, passengers and not just City Hall bureaucrats.
Wanna bet that doesn’t work, either?