my name is tommy

streeter:

You hail an NYC yellow cab and the driver rolls down the window.
“Where are you going?” he or she asks.
“Brooklyn,” you say.
And they’re gone, with a dismissive hand gesture and a sour look.
This is a familiar occurrence to anyone who lives in Brooklyn (or Queens or the Bronx). I get it, cabbies don’t like going to Brooklyn because they have trouble finding fares back to the city or, worst of all, they find a fare who wants to go to somewhere else in Brooklyn (THE HORROR!). The NYPD just did a big sting to correct this injustice by having college students pose as stranded Brooklynites looking to get home. Any cabbie who refused caught a fine. And while that appeals to my sense of justice, there has to be a better way to address this problem.
So how about we make cab stands in Brooklyn (and Queens and the Bronx)? Each neighborhood would have a few designated places where cabbies could go to find a fare and Brooklynites could wait for a yellow cab (instead of using pricier car services). Maybe we could even have a little button that a potential passenger could push to alert cabbies nearby that they’re waiting. Above is a map of Park Slope - my neighborhood - and where I think those cab stands could go. They work at airports, why not in Brooklyn? Cabbies wouldn’t get fined, Brooklynites could get reliable cab service and we could stop doing the age old get-in-the-cab-and-shut-the-door-before-saying-you’re-going-to-Brooklyn charade.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to take some supplies over to Brooklyn from our office on the west side. It was actually only the second time I had taken a cab in NYC (and to date I’ve still been in more cabs in China than here). I was surprised that it took over half an hour to hail a taxi that would go into Williamsburg.
This idea makes sense, but I wonder if there really is a large enough demand.

You hail an NYC yellow cab and the driver rolls down the window.

“Where are you going?” he or she asks.

“Brooklyn,” you say.

And they’re gone, with a dismissive hand gesture and a sour look.

This is a familiar occurrence to anyone who lives in Brooklyn (or Queens or the Bronx). I get it, cabbies don’t like going to Brooklyn because they have trouble finding fares back to the city or, worst of all, they find a fare who wants to go to somewhere else in Brooklyn (THE HORROR!). The NYPD just did a big sting to correct this injustice by having college students pose as stranded Brooklynites looking to get home. Any cabbie who refused caught a fine. And while that appeals to my sense of justice, there has to be a better way to address this problem.

So how about we make cab stands in Brooklyn (and Queens and the Bronx)? Each neighborhood would have a few designated places where cabbies could go to find a fare and Brooklynites could wait for a yellow cab (instead of using pricier car services). Maybe we could even have a little button that a potential passenger could push to alert cabbies nearby that they’re waiting. Above is a map of Park Slope - my neighborhood - and where I think those cab stands could go. They work at airports, why not in Brooklyn? Cabbies wouldn’t get fined, Brooklynites could get reliable cab service and we could stop doing the age old get-in-the-cab-and-shut-the-door-before-saying-you’re-going-to-Brooklyn charade.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to take some supplies over to Brooklyn from our office on the west side. It was actually only the second time I had taken a cab in NYC (and to date I’ve still been in more cabs in China than here). I was surprised that it took over half an hour to hail a taxi that would go into Williamsburg.

This idea makes sense, but I wonder if there really is a large enough demand.

11:55 am | December 6 2011 | 65 notes | Comments
tagged: New York City new york brooklyn