Here’s the good news for taxi riders: The use of mobile-phone apps to hail cabs is soaring. More than 5,300 passengers daily use such an app each day, almost double what it was last year. In other words, the new technology is doing what it promised: bringing cabs to riders, with fewer accidents as well.
The bad news is how Mayor de Blasio’s administration has reacted. On Thursday, Meera Joshi — the woman just appointed to head the Taxi and Limousine Commission — announced the city was putting on ice the rollout of a fleet of green taxis to the outer boroughs and Upper Manhattan. In the face of public criticism, she has since suggested the licensing of 6,000 new green taxis will merely be delayed a bit.
Joshi says the city needed to study the issue more and “to speak to all of our stakeholders.” No doubt. For the biggest stakeholder here is the dominant yellow-cab industry. In the last election, the yellow-cab fleets supported de Blasio for the mayor and are fighting to keep out any new competition.
As The Post reported Saturday, the de Blasio campaign took in $550,000 from yellow cabs, plus another $150,000 in matching funds. And Joshi’s announcement that the green-cab rollout will be delayed comes just after Mayor Bill had installed Izabella Vais, a consultant to his campaign who raised thousands from the taxi industry, as an assistant commissioner at the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Sure is odd for a man claiming to be standing up for the little guy to side with the big taxi interests over the new entrants. Worth remembering next time you’re in one of those underserved outer boroughs desperately looking for a cab.