Taxi Drivers are Unprofessional

A pedicab operator and a taxi driver got into a brawl in the middle of traffic on Broadway near Times Square Monday morning. A News crew happened to be there and captured the fight on camera.

It isn’t clear what sparked the fight, but the pedicab operator threw a cup of coffee at the cab. The driver of the taxi cab pulled his car into the path of the bike, running into it.

The cab driver came out and the two men threw down right in the middle of the intersection of Broadway and 53rd Street.

Two people and a photographer from a news company, who was covering the David Letterman story outside the Ed Sullivan Theater, stepped in to break up the fight.

The two men then continued their verbal assault at each other. The pedicab driver picked up a waste basket and hurled it at the taxi cab driver, missing him but spilling garbage into the street.
The pedicab driver wanted to get away, but the cabbie tried to stop him. The pedicab rode the wrong way on 53rd Street, then up a sidewalk, and down 7th Avenue.

Police responded moments later and interviewed the taxicab driver, but the pedicab operator was gone.

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Taxis Unsafe in New York!

A new report by a well-known automotive engineer, who previously consulted for the City of New York and several major automakers, exposes the risks and dangers of riding in New York City’s hybrid yellow taxicabs. The report is the result of several months of analysis and concludes that hybrid taxis are unsafe and incompatible with the rigorous demands of New York City taxicabs that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hybrids will start to replace the stretch Ford Crown Victoria, a purpose-built taxi, and other taxis on October 1, 2008 if a City mandate requiring that all new taxis have a minimum city rating of 25 mpg is not halted. Citing public endangerment, the city’s largest taxi advocacy group urged a federal court on Monday to intervene.

According to the report’s author, C. Bruce Gambardella, P.E., “from an engineering standpoint, vehicles have to be designed for the duty cycle they are likely to encounter and cannot feature modifications that will compromise their safety systems.” Hybrids strike out on both counts, over and over again in virtually every category analyzed in the 43-page report.

The report concludes that hybrids are not designed to hold partitions, which are mandated by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (”TLC”) to prevent drivers from being assaulted, robbed or killed. Partitions in hybrid taxis were found to compromise their safety systems by blocking side-curtain airbags from deploying; become easily dislodged in accidents; restrict drivers from safely distancing themselves from front airbags; and diminish backseat legroom so severely — as much as 10 inches less than in a stretch Ford Crown Victoria — that even belted passengers will hit their faces on the hard unyielding surface of the partitions in an accident. Mr. Gambardella took particular issue with the “L-shaped” partition, which features sharp edges, presents a dangerously confined driver space and places passengers at great risk for injury.

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New York Taxis and Cellphones

New York City cabbies have been banned from using cellphones for a decade — even the hands-free type, putting the city a step ahead of state law. But the stringent rules remain almost entirely unenforced, even amid research that shows drivers who talk on cellphones are four times as likely to cause a crash.

And as the city struggles to find more effective ways to confront the problem — call it an epidemic of gab — much of the burden to report cellphone abuse falls on passengers, who can feel powerless or intimidated.

The authorities issued just 232 summonses for cellphone use in yellow cabs during the first six months of this year, or one ticket for every 517,241 cab rides during that period, based on the city’s estimated ridership.

For the same period in 2008, 411 summonses were issued, or about one for every 291,971 rides.

The head of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the city agency that regulates the industry, acknowledged that combating phone use by drivers remains “a constant battle.” But the commissioner, Matthew W. Daus, said the problem is not as bad as it used to be, citing a decline in summonses and consumer complaints from 2008 and this year.

Yet for many New Yorkers, the sight of a cabby using a cellphone while driving has become an indelible part of the urban milieu — the vehicular equivalent of jaywalking.

New York’s rules about phone use in taxis, passed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission in 1999 over objections from the wireless industry, are among the strictest in the country. While similar restrictions exist in Boston and Chicago, hands-free devices in taxis are permitted in Los Angeles and Washington. In Denver and Miami, all drivers — cabbies included — can use cellphones.

Drivers in New York City who are convicted of violating the rule must pay a $200 fine. Yet caught-while-chatting cabbies have remained a rarity since the beginning of the decade, when cellphones first flourished. Fewer than 800 summonses were issued to yellow and livery cabs in 2007; at most, 2,285 citations were issued in 2004.

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Harsh Winter for New York

Hey New York, brace yourselves for a blast from the wintery past.

Forecasters say we're likely to be hit with one of those old fashioned winters with freezing temperatures and plenty of snow that you'll be able to tell your grandchildren about - not the wussy winters we've had in recent years.

It may be a shock to some when compared with the above-average temperatures of last year in the East. It will put some 'brrrrrr' in the saddle of folks who have not had to deal with such things for a while. Blame the brrrrrr on the core of cold that visited misery on the Midwest last year - and is now heading for the east neck of America

In the eastern half of the nation, people will look at the winter as bookends of cold. December could be the most brutal month of winter followed by a "January thaw of old winter lore".

Then winter will roar back again in February with more freezing temperatures, more snow - and more pain in the wallet for millions of Americans already feeling the pinch from the Wall Street woes. The winter as a whole in the population-dense eastern third of the nation will be a one-two punch of higher heating prices and lower temperatures.

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Safety Tips for Travelers in New York City

Panhandlers are best ignored, and the easiest way to divert persistant panhandlers is to avoid eye contact. Generally, even the most persistant request can be deterred with a firm "No". One common scam is strangers approaching you with a sob story about living outside the city and having difficulty getting home because they left their wallet locked in their office or claiming to have just been attacked and needing money for train or bus fare. If these folks had a legitimate problem, the police could assist them, so don't fall prey to their tactics.

Pickpockets and swindlers often work in teams, where one person will cause a commotion, either by falling or dropping something, while the other person pickpockets unsuspecting folks who try to help or stop to look. Crowded street performances can provide pickpockets a similar opportunity -- so while it is fine to watch the musicians or artists, be aware of your surroundings and where your wallet and valuables are. Sidewalk card and shell games are most often scams as well -- participation almost guarantees you'll be giving your money away.

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New York and Rain

According to Joe Weisenthal:

"If you don't live in New York, and don't follow anyone on Twitter who lives there, then you might not know it, but it's been the summer of rain. People were complaining about excessive rain back in early May, and it hasn't really stopped.

Why is it raining so much? We have no idea, and we don't think anyone else does either. The weather is a stock market-like chaotic system. It walks as randomly as the town drunk, and sometimes it takes left turn after left turn after left turn after left turn.

The most maddening thing about rain (besides the wetness) is that there's nobody to complain to. Crime, traffic, graffiti, taxes, etc... you can always find a politician to shake your fist at over a drink. Rain? Nobody. It literally is nobody's fault."

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