2 replies to this topic

[Cotuit]

Call For Cabs In Queens
By Angela Montefinise

With 900 yellow cab medallions set to be awarded in the next month, one Queens City Councilman is looking to lure some taxis into his neighborhood – and end a long-standing problem with livery cabs.

Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. hopes to lure yellow taxis to Astoria and end a long standing problem with livery cabs there. Tribune photo by Ira Cohen

Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. told the Tribune this week that he has requested a taxi cab stand from the Taxi and Limousine Commission in order to lure yellow taxis into Astoria. He explained that there is a need for taxi service in his district, but that the livery cabs picking people up off the street are causing problems for businesses in the area.

He said, "At the end of the N line especially it’s easier for people to hop in a cab than wait for a bus, so livery cabs sit there and wait for fares. Businesses complain that people can’t park in the meters, but if they’re not there residents complain that they can’t get a cab."

In addition, the livery cabs sit in parking meters without feeding them, and pick up fares off the street, which is illegal, according to City Council Transportation Chair and Queens Councilman John Liu.

He said, "Yellow cabs are the only vehicles that are legally permitted to pick up passengers without any prearrangements made. Livery cabs are supposed to arrange through a dispatcher to be picked up. If they don’t do that, they’re breaking the law."

Vallone, Jr. wrote a letter to Taxi and Limousine Commission Commissioner Matthew Daus in September to request that a current stand at the end of the N line near 22nd Avenue and 31st Street – across the street from his office – be manned with a dispatcher that can call cabs.

He also said this week, "Where there are fares, cabs will come. We need to set up a stand where there will be fares waiting." He said that he is still in the early stages of planning, and was not sure if the stand would include legal livery cabs as well as yellow cabs. It was also unclear who would hire the dispatcher.

The program that Vallone, Jr. wants to start in Astoria is similar to one currently being implemented in downtown Flushing. Liu, who represents the area, joined the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade – an industry group – to launch a taxi stand in Flushing manned with a dispatcher at high-volume times of day.

The six-month pilot program, which Liu said was actually supposed to end in December but is still existing "successfully" in Flushing, was accompanied by a study done by Schaller Consulting to figure out the best ways to bring yellow cabs to all parts of Queens.

The study is set to be released in the next few weeks, according to Liu.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission was not available for comment at presstime on the Astoria stand.

From The Queens Tribune

[Scott]

You'd think there wouldn't be so much to the cab game but there is. In Boston an out of town taxi cannot pick you up on the street but if you called one to your house they could come. This is a real problem in areas like Lower Mills in Dorchester/Milton/Mattapan where the municipal boundry being 350 years old doesn't coincide with human boundries.

[Cotuit]

That's a problem in Newton Corner / Watertown Square too. Newton, Watertown, and Waltham cabs will usually all pick you up after doing a cop check.

When I lived in Astoria I don't think I ever called for a livery cab (everyone calls them gypsies). I did try once and the dispatcher didn't speak English, I remembered enough Spanish from Sesame Street to give my street number in Spanish. Much easier to walk to the corner and hail one. They are almost always black towncars and their license plates start with a 'T.' It can be hard to get a yellow cab from Manhattan to the outer boroughs sometimes. They aren't allowed to refuse you, but they aren't allowed to do a lot of things. Being able to pick up in Queens would help.