For several years now hybrids have been proving their safety and reliability to the public not only as private cars, but as taxis. One of the few things the mayor has done right was buckling down on both the taxi and private for hire business. I posted a piece over at YellowCabNYC.com.
Stay tuned over at YellowCabNYC, I'll be publishing pictures and stories over there too, while also publishing over here at NYCtaxiphoto.blogspot.com
YellowCabNYC.com is a great source for current news relating to the world of NYC taxi, and I'm glad to be a part of it. I'll make sure NYC taxi photo continues to be as awesome as it always has been as well.
You'd have to see it to believe it, so I'm glad I took picture after my shift. Somebody chopped the back of their Geo off and replaced it with a coffee stand!
I only saw it once, I guess it drives, very slowly I assume, slower than a normal Geo.
So, you're either sick of your Crown Victoria's appetite for gas, or you're irritated by the loss of space in your new compact economy car. Am I right?
Did you know, that the Ford Crown Victoria taxis of NYC have 9 inches more length than the standard model Crown Vic? Why can't we get a little stretch in our compacts? By the way, that stretchy freak Prius still gets 50 miles to the gallon. What! I still can't get 15 mpgs on my best days.
From 7am to 1pm you will be confronted with this wall of happiness. From the Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd Street; Laffayette, then 4th Avenue, then Park Avenue will all be closed. And 72nd Street will be closed between Central Park and Park Avenue. All major street crossings will remain open, but be prepared for multitudes of bicyclists and pedestrians crossing when the light is against them.
This is a trial program which will be tested August 9th, 16th, and the 23rd.
I'm on both sides of the fence on this one. It sounds like a wonderful idea, but right through the middle of the city, has any other city done this before? I know Cambridge Massachusetts is one example, however they close Memorial Drive, a major road with only a few cross-streets in an un-congested area, also they close the drive sundays and not saturdays.
I think it is a bit much to imagine that cutting circulation of traffic right in the middle of Manhattan can work on any day of the week. I hope that when examining this plan, city experts had examined the effects on traffic from the 5 boro bike tour, and the New York City Marathon.
Frankly I love the idea, but I'm pretty pessimistic on the income I will be making. I'll make sure to tell all my friends to take out their bike, their inline skates, and their skateboards, in hopes that maybe someone can enjoy the day.
Two key factors are accomplished with this police car
The element of surprise
Bragging rights for the coolest idea in police tactics
Seriously though, they could be more secretive about it. The NYPD views the police as more effective as a noticeable presence, rather than undercover. I am sure they have multiple levels of undercover officers, and this car with multiple sirens and the casual pullovers and busts that vehicles of this type pull is on the low end of 'undercover.'
elmblog wants to know what makes it noticeable as a police vehicle. And I guess that's important information so:
The license plate is 8 consecutive digits, usually beginning with 'T8OO", while most civilian plates for New York State are 7 digits with a space between the first three digits and the last four, and more importantly most taxicabs in New York City have only four digits on their plates which match the medallion number on the roof light.
On the trunk lid, there is an extra black thing protruding about 4 inches. This is a police radio antenna or something like it.
The black trim on the side doors, door in this case, is rarely ever on a real New York City cab anymore.
Other features on the police car that are not shown in this picture:
There is no partition, and while there are a few taxis without partitions, the front seats are made of cloth rather than the leather like material mandated by the taxi commission.
Sometimes an on board shockproof laptop computer is mounted between the two front seats.
The Police-cabs are often driven in groups of three very police looking people.
And the most obvious reason, is sometimes that the car is parked on the same block as the police precinct and the bulb siren is sitting on the dashboard.
Complete with the "Greenyc" sticker on the C pillar, along with countless other stickers from its garage.
All Hybrid taxis in New York City get the "Greenyc" sticker, a badge of honor and intelligence showing the public that very soon, New York's taxis and even our car services will be eating less gas per mile, and less gas per minute while idling.
But while we're investing in a different taxi, why don't we do it right?
Of all the cleaner vehicles to choose from, the Chevy Malibu has the second worst city gas mileage. The only car with lower M.P.G. on the approved list is the Saturn Vue Hybrid Sport Utility vehicle; both vehicles are made by General Motors. Now, it is wonderful that General Motors has finally joined the band wagon, and is now mass producing hybrid vehicles, these vehicles are significantly reducing our "Dependence on Oil", but still, G.M. should be making even more fuel efficient vehicles than they already are.
Toyota has the most hybrid models. These models are exceptional in their gas consumption in the City, using the battery to power the car at low speeds and while idling. Toyota's technology has also been transferred over to the Nissan Altima hybrid, which gets the second best gas mileage only bested by the tiny Toyota Prius.
Most recently the VW Jetta clean diesel has just been approved.
The Toyota Highlander S.U.V. hybrid taxi
The Highlander is the biggest hybrid taxi available. And even with four wheel drive it has a comparable M.P.G. rating to the midsize sedan Chevy Malibu.
And let's not forget the fabulous job Ford has done at making an affordable and durable Ford Escape Hybrid, which gets 34 M.P.G. in the city, making it 3rd best rated Mileage in T&LC approved taxicabs. Its S.U.V. character gives it more trunk room than the Crown Victoria, a higher commanding view of the road, suitable legroom, and easy exit and entry for passengers. The detriments though are a small width providing less ass room for passengers.
Want to see all the New York City Taxis? Click the link below (NYC taxi models) to see all the blogs posted of each taxi.
Alright bare with me here, I can't stop surfing the internet finding examples of old New York taxis. I promise this will be my last post of old taxis, but promises are made to be broken. All the pictures were found on IMCDB.org. Can you believe there is an entire site dedicated to finding the cars used in movies and naming them all!!! Did I die and go to heaven? I know a lot of movies get their history wrong, or they just don't care about history, so if you see any car I posted, and want to add some info about how it really looked, or it never being a taxi, don't hesitate to comment.
Again I must remind you if you don't know already, that the NYC taxi wasn't always yellow. Each cab company would choose their paint scheme. The yellow dominance was introduced by John D. Hertz, a national taxi company owner (Yellow Cab Co.), and later of rental car company fame. He believed that yellow was the most noticeable color.
By the way I just saw my first Chevrolet Malibu hybrid taxi yesterday, I think it was owned by a fleet, so there should be a handful of them within the year.
72' Dodge Polara
"The Seven-Ups"
Nothing says, I live in the era when everything
sucks, quite like this car.
Everything about this car is genuine. the red number 83 indicates this as the 83rd car of a particular taxi company. The taxi fare decal on the front doors and even the medallion number on the roof-light are very accurate.
57' Dodge Coronet
"The Best of Everything"
77' Dodge Coronet
"Murder She Wrote"
Could this be the ugliest car ever made?
55' Dodge Coronet
"North By Northwest"
80' Chevy Impala
"The Confession"
In the early 80's the Impala and the Caprice were virtually the same.
59' Checker
"Breakfast at Tiffany's"
Note the green and yellow colors, beautiful.
37' Buick Special
"The Natural"
I wonder if cabs ever had white wall tires?
36' Buick Special
"The Pantom"
This roof sign seems very accurate. I don't think any taxi was satisfied with a simple "Taxi" sign. I wish more movies would get this right.
36' Cord 810 Westchester
"The Shadow"
This car is amazing! Pop up headlights inside the wheel well?!!! How cool is that!!!!!??? Again the roof-light is very comparable to the DeSoto Skyview taxis, very historically acute.
Right when aviation was getting started, everyone wanted to be a pilot. That dash makes the driver feel as though he were flying. I wouldn't be surprised if it had an altimeter.
But my main question is: Was this ever really a taxicab?
42' DeSoto Skyview
"Saboteur"
The Skyview was aptly named for a glass roof in the back. Both the glass roof, and the ample room in the back made it the most desirable cab.
46' Plymouth De Lux
"The Shadow"
53' Plymouth Cambridge
"Funny Face"
Location: Washington Square Park. that's right, 5th Avenue went right through the arch and around the fountain.
National Transportation Company- (Parmalee System Management) offers you the finest taxicab service in New York. It costs no more that the ordinary kind and is- CLEAN - SAFE - COMFORTABLE"
The civilian version was the Checker Marathon. The taxi version was more New York than a slice of pizza or the Empire State Building, despite Checker coming out of Michigan.
There was only one Lincoln taxi in New York City, only approved for a probationary period.
Chevrolet Caprice (circa 96')
Random sourced photo (model year 92')
In the late 90's, the typical taxi was in transition from the Caprice to the Crown Victoria. The preference was for the Caprice, but due to low sales General Motors soon stopped production.
The colt like love for the large american car and the monopoly that they had over police and taxi markets possessed an entrepreneur to consider purchasing the entire production line and the rights to produce the vehicles once General Motors gave up on production. But after Chevy gave up on the Caprice the fleets turned their interest towards Ford's Crown Vic'.
With the entire market, Ford decided to extend production year after year, although there were always rumors that ford would soon end the Crown Victoria. Again an entrepreneur suggested taking over the operation, but Ford, with a strangle hold on the police and taxi market, has continued production to this day.
Currently Ford has limited sales to only fleets and removed the Crown Victoria from all pamphlets. According to Wikipedia, Ford will stop production completely in 2009.
Ford Crown Victoria' (circa 95')
Isuzu Oasis / A.K.A. Honda Odyssey (circa 96')
The Odyssey/Oasis, was the city's first compact taxi since the Peugeot, and I believe the first van-taxi for New York.
The passenger doors swung out rather than sliding and were fairly large, which I think were requirements for the Taxi & Limo Commission. One feature were passenger seats that could be positioned either forward, for trunk space, or rearward for legroom. I rode in one with the seats forward once and had difficulty getting my 5' 7" body out of the car with my bag.
I imagine this car was fundamental in pushing taxi thinking outside of the box, suggesting that a taxicab needn't be a rear-wheel drive V-8 engined, wide bodied, long wheel base mammoth. With these 4-cylinder vans, drivers took a different, usually less aggressive approach to driving.
Section 2: Taxi Present-
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A: The Hybrids:
Lexus RX 400h (26 mpg city)
There was an article somewhere on how one of the Lexus driver/owners had a completely clean driving record even after driving for 30 years, impressive.
Toyota Highlander hybrid (4 wheel drive, 27 mpg city)
Toyota Highlander hybrid (model years 01' to 07')
Toyota Prius (48 mpg city)
Toyota Camry hybrid (33 mpg city)
Ford Escape hybrid (2 wheel drive, 34 mpg city)
The best bang for the buck, the Escape is sweeping the city with more than 1,000 vehicles both privately driven and also, owned by taxi fleets.
Ford Escape hybrid (model years 01' to 07')
Nissan Altima hybrid (35 mpg city)
This car has absolutely no advertising. The only way people learn there is a Nissan hybrid is through word of mouth. Nissan is actually borrowing hybrid technology from Toyota. The Altima is second only to the Toyota Prius in best city gas mileage on the approved T&LC list. Fleets are already starting to purchase the car.
There since has been a larger redesigned Saturn, but no one has purchased it for taxi services yet.
There is one elusive 07'Honda Civic Hybrid that I haven't shot with the camera yet.
The one and only Honda Civic taxi in New York has less legroom, higher gas mileage, and relatively similar if less trunk room than the environmental front runner: Toyota Prius. The only image I could find on the internet was taken in Hartford, Connecticut, and is most likely not the real NYC taxi, which had no advert on the roof.
Being phased out by The Taxi and Limousine Commision
Toyota Sienna: Freedom Motors Kneelvan (on right)
C: Regular Taxis:
Ford Crown Victoria Stretch
For the past 4 years or so all Crown Victoria NYC taxis have had extended rear doors
Toyota Sienna
Honda Odyssey
Being phased out by the Taxi and Limousine Commission
Honda Odyssey (model years 99' to 04')
Ford Explorer (circa 06')
How's this for hilarious, the only image I could find on the internet for the last Ford Explorer taxi involves the bizarre sport of "Extreme Ironing" go figure. The Explorer is no longer on the approved list.
D: The Actors:
Ford Crown Victoria @ Brooklyn Bridge Downtown, on the set of "Pelham 1 2 3" (the remake)
BTW I take back what I wrote on the earlier post a while back about the show. One of my passengers said they knew someone who participated. She told me her friends were NOT pre-selected for the show.
Also, the Driver is an officially licensed cab driver, and the cab is totally official... err... well.. The Taxi and Limousine Commission approved it despite having a completely eccentric meter, flashing lights in the roof, tinted windows that wouldn't even pass inspection on a normal civilian vehicle, and a trunk loaded with video and audio recording and transmitting equipment. Not to mention that Ben readily tells all the viewers that he won't take you out of Manhattan, sorry folks, you can't win, like, uhh, 10,000 dollars.
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