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The mayor can’t legally force fleet owners to buy eco-friendly taxis but he can offer incentives if they do so. He said the TLC will permit medallion owners to charge $3 more per 12-hour shift and order that non-hybrid vehicles charge $12 less per 12-hour shift. Current driver rates range from $105 to $129 per shift now plus the cost of gas. Fleets currently account for 25% of the 13,237 medallions now of which 1,565 are hybrids. Rest assured that more green cars in yellow bodies are headed our way.IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog is a quick comment on an older New York City news headline. Unforeseen NYCo website development delays prevented it’s publication before now. For readership continuity, 100’s of older headlines are to be posted in chronological order until this blog is current. Though some of the stories may no longer be as relevant as they once were, they remain interesting news items worthy of this site’s mention and viewer comments.
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The city collected $54 million dollars recently after selling new medallions for cabs. TLC Commissioner Mathew Daus said "The industry has never been better." A regular medallion sold for a record $524,000. A pair of wheelchair-accessible medallions also sold for a record $1.31 million dollars. As part of the auction, 87 medallions for wheelchair-accessible minivans were sold. This will bring New York City’s fleet of taxis available for the disabled to 231; the highest in the nation. Nice to have all the additional cabs around town, but will any come with a polite driver who speaks English, willing to drive to the outer boroughs?
The Taxi and Limousine Commission agreed to pay a British firm $500,000.00 to design new taxis. I guess we Americans no longer lead the world in automobile manufacturing or ecology technology. More conveniences for the passenger. More green science to benefit the environment. The first of these new cabs is expected to hit NYC’s streets in the Fall of 2009 (Want to bet?). Let’s just hope these English engineers remember which side of the road we drive on.
