After a lawsuit filed by yellow taxi drivers, the plan to increase the wheelchair accessibility of New York City’s taxi fleet by 2020 is now on hold.
New rules requiring wheelchair accessible taxicabs within the fleet came about after the city settled a suit that charged it was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because so few taxis were accessible. Only approximately 250 of New York City’s 13,000 were able to pick up passengers in wheelchairs.
A Muslim New York City taxi driver was hit with a $350 fine after refusing to allow a female passenger to sit in the front seat of his cab. Taxi driver Tamsir Drammeh argued that due to “religious reasons”, he could not allow a woman to sit so close to him and would need to be in the backseat.
Drammeh picked up the woman and her family at Penn Station and when her two children, ages 6 and 11, got in the backseat with her husband, the mother went to sit in the front seat where there was additional room. The driver refused to open the door and told her that her husband could sit up front, but she could not.
In a heartbreaking tragedy, an 88-year old woman was accidently struck and killed by a taxi driver who was in his 16th hour of his weekend shift.
The elderly woman, identified as Luisa Rosario, was on the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 109th Street around 12:40am when she was hit. Police say she was within the crosswalk and she was about a block from her home while heading to her daughter’s house.
In order to own a cab in New York, you need a medallion – a metal shield that is literally attached to the vehicle’s hood. There are a fixed number of these medallions issued by The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).
Owning a Taxi Medallion used to be the dream for taxi drivers. It made you an entrepreneur and it was a solid financial investment.
It doesn’t just happen in the movies: Sometimes babies really are born in taxis.
A beautiful baby girl was born in the backseat of a yellow taxi as the cab arrived at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in the East Village.
The day started just as any other, when Yashira Guzman, 30, started to have contractions around 8am. Her neighbor was able to flag down a taxi and Yashira and soon-to-be-dad Danny Torres were quickly on their way to the hospital.