August 13, 1907 1st Taxi Hits NYC Streets The 1st taxi cab took to the streets of NY City on this day, marking the beginning of the love-hate relationship between New Yorkers & their cabbies. Motorized taxicabs had actually begun appearing on the streets of Europe in the late 1890s, & their development closely mirrors that of the automobile. The taxi is named after the taximeter, a device that automatically records the distance traveled or time consumed & used to calculate the fare. The term cab originated from the cabriolet, a 1-horse carriage let out for hire. Horse drawn carriages were used as a taxi service in NY City until near the end of the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, automobiles began to appear on city streets thruout the country. It was not long before a # of these cars were hiring themselves out in competition w/horse-drawn carriages. Altho these electric-powered cabs were slightly impractical (w/batteries weighing upwards of 800 lbs), by 1899 there were nearly 100 of them on NY's streets. Many believed that these new cabs would provide a cleaner, quieter, & faster way to travel. But progress has always had its price, & on 9/13/1899, a 68-year-old man named Henry H. Bliss was helping a friend from a street car when a taxi swerved & hit him, giving Bliss the dubious distinction of being the 1st American to die in an automobile accident, & giving cabbies a 1st glimpse at a reputation they would soon solidify. Taxicabs of NY City A NY City taxicab old branding. A Ford Escape NYC taxicab, new branding. The taxicabs of NY City, w/their distinctive yellow paint, are a widely recognized icon of the city. Taxicabs are operated by private companies & licensed by the NY City Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC). The Commission is a NY City government agency, w/in the NY City Department of Transportation, that is best known for its responsibility for the more than 13,087 taxis operating in the city. It also oversees over 40,000 other for-hire vehicles, including "black cars", commuter vans & ambulettes. Taxicabs are operated by private companies & licensed by the Taxi & Limousine Commission. "Medallion taxis," the familiar yellow cabs, are the only vehicles in the city permitted to pick up passengers in response to a street hail. Early 1900s - The Checker Cab Metal die-cast model of a Checker taxicab.
The 1st taxicab company in NY was the NY Taxicab Company, which in 1907 imported 600 gasoline-powered cars from France. The cars were painted red & green. Within a decade several more companies opened business & taxicabs began to proliferate. The fare was 50 cents a mile, a rate only affordable to the relatively wealthy. Previous taxis, including the one
that killed Henry Bliss in 1899, were electric.
By the '20s industrialists recognized the potential of the taxicab market. Automobile manufacturers like GM & FoMoCo began operating fleets. The most successful manufacturer, however, was the Checkered Cab Manufacturing Company. Founded by Morris Markin, Checker Cabs produced the large yellow & black taxis that became one of the most recognizable
symbols of mid-20th century urban life. For many years Checker cabs were the most popular taxis in NY City.
1930s - Medallion System Introduced
During the Great Depression NY had as many as 30,000 cab drivers. With more cab drivers than passengers, cab drivers were working longer hours; additionally, there were concerns regarding the maintenance & mechanical integrity of the vehicles. In considering how to handle the situation, the city considered creating a taxi monopoly. The plan was abandoned
after Mayor Jimmy Walker was accused of accepting a bribe from the Parmelee Company, the largest taxi company.
In '37 Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia signed the Haas Act, which introduced official taxi licenses & the medallion system that remains in place today.
The law limited the # of licenses 16,900 but the # dwindled to 11,787 & a limit which continued until '96 when the TLC added 133 cabs. Since then more medallions have been added to the fleet & the city still only has around 13,000 medallions.
Because the medallion system artificially restricts the # of cabs, it has been criticized as a barrier to entry to the taxi market that somewhat paradoxically has created a market for illegal taxicab operation in areas undeserved by medallion cabs. Because the cost of leasing a medallion is so high, the system may cut into the income of drivers & raise costs to passengers. On the other hand, some transportation analysts contend that cities w/no barriers to entry to the taxi market end up w/an abundance of poorly maintained taxis. They say that a medallion system helps the city to better regulate taxis & enables the city to raise the standards of all taxis.
The medallions which could not be sold for a simple $10 renewal fee during the '30s are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars w/fleet medallions topping $600,000 in '07. Over the years, many medallions once owned by individual drivers were sold to large taxi fleets. To preserve the possibility opportunity for individual drivers to own & drive their own taxi, certain medallions were designated for owner-operators. These cabs must be personally driven by the medallion owner for 210 9-hour shifts per year, after which they can, if the driver chooses, be leased out. Corporate medallions, on the other hand, cost more, & are required to be leased double shifts, 365 days a year. About 29% of all taxis are
owner operated, the rest are leased.
1960s - Yellow Cabs
In the '60s NY City experienced many of the problems of social unrest that engulfed other American cities. Crime rates increased along w/racial tensions. As a result, a quickly growing industry of private livery services emerged. Unofficial drivers were barred from picking up people on the street, but they readily found business in under-served neighborhoods. In '67, NY City ordered all "medallion taxis" be painted yellow to help cut down on unofficial drivers & make official taxicabs more readily recognizable.
The yellow taxi had been popularized by John D. Hertz, who started the Yellow Cab Company in 1915 & which operated in a # of cities including NY. Hertz painted his cabs yellow after he read a study identifying yellow as the most visible color from long distances.
1970s - NY City Taxi & Limousine Commission
The NY City Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) was established in '71 w/jurisdiction over the city's medallion (yellow) taxicabs, livery cabs, "black cars", commuter vans, paratransit vehicles (ambulettes) & some luxury limousines. The TLC was founded to deal w/the growing # of drivers & to address issues important to both the taxi & livery industries. Its predecessor was the NY City Hack Bureau, operated under the aegis of the NYPD.
In the '70s & '80s both the unofficial livery services & the medallion taxicab companies began finding more & more of their drivers in the growing populations of Black, Latino, & Middle Eastern immigrants to the city as the previous generation of cabbies retired & moved out of the city. Crime in NY City had become severe at this point, & cabbies were often the victims of robberies & street crime. Bulletproof partitions between the rear passenger seat & the driver became common.
1980s - Demographic change in drivers
By the mid-'80s & into the '90s the demographic changes among cabbies began to accelerate as new waves of immigrants arrived in NY. Today, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, of the 42,000 cabbies in NY 82% are foreign born: 23% are from the Caribbean (the Dominican Republic & Haiti), & 20% from South Asia (India, Pakistan, & Bangladesh). The production of the famous Checker Cab had stopped, tho there were still many in operation, Chevrolet Caprice became the industry top choice.
The working conditions of cabbies have changed as crime in NY has plummeted, while the cost of medallions has increased & fewer cabbies own their taxicabs than in previous times. |
