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City motorists constantly steer clear of erratic yellow-cab drivers — but have no problem sidling up next to massive MTA buses, a new poll found.
More than two-thirds of New Yorkers — some 67 percent — rated bus drivers as “respectful” in sharing the road, the Marist/NY1 poll of 808 people found.
“We drive on the defense, not the offense!” crowed one triumphant MTA bus driver in Harlem when he heard the news.
But the lovefest ends when it comes to the city’s legion of cabbies.
The vast majority of respondents — 78 percent — believe cabbies are hell on wheels, while a mere 16 percent rated them as “respectful” to others on the road.
Only 6 percent were unsure.
The bad news for hacks comes a week after a yellow cabby was caught on video threatening to “break” a passenger’s face for asking to go to Brooklyn.
But many hacks said their bad reputation is undeserved — though they admitted they do have lead feet.
“We just have to get where we are going,” said veteran cabby Bidhan Pal.
Another cabby was brazen enough to blame customers, saying, “We pick people up and they are in a hurry. We do our best to get them there in a rush.”
In his opinion, cyclists — whom he likened to a “virus” infecting the city — were the worst.
Plenty of New Yorkers agree with him.
After cabbies, cyclists ranked the worst, with only 48 percent of the 808 people polled rating them as respectful.
Forty-six percent said cyclists were bad at sharing the roads and 7 percent were unsure.
One bike messenger shot back at motorists, though, saying they routinely crowd into his coveted bike lanes.
“We have problems with cabdrivers,” said bike messenger José Cipreny, 42. “They cut us off, they’re in and they’re out of the bike lanes.
“Ninety-five percent of the time, pedestrians are walking in them,” he added.
More than half of New Yorkers — 51 percent — found pedestrians to be courteous sharing the road.
The poll also found that a vast majority of New Yorkers support the tangle of bike lanes around the city, with a solid 66 percent backing them.
But enough is enough for 44 percent of the respondents, who say they do not want to add more.
Twenty-seven percent would like to see more bike lanes, and 23 percent want to rip out some of the existing lanes.
Forty percent of those polled said bike lanes make traffic in the city worse.