TLC fines Trump-touting cab drivers for rants targeting Muslims, immigrants, liberals

Yellow cabs on a Manhattan avenue with an inset photo of a woman

Some pro-Trump cabbies are driving New Yorkers crazy.

At least four taxi drivers have each been fined hundreds of dollars by the city for praising President Trump — and, in some cases, making offensive comments to passengers, the Daily News has learned.

One political hack was hit with a $1,100 penalty and given three points on his license after a passenger complained that he went on a racist tirade during a Nov. 30 ride to Kennedy Airport, ranting that “the traffic is the fault of f—–g Africans and Muslims and that Trump is great for this country.”

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Taxi King no longer allowed to manage hundreds of medallions

Gene Freidman, the taxi king, at a court appearance

“Taxi king” Gene Freidman is now the court jester of the cab industry.

Freidman will no longer be allowed to manage the more than 800 medallions he’s controlled for the past several years, the Taxi and Limousine Commission ruled this week.

“We have notified all the medallions that were in the management of those companies that they would need to be managed by others,” said TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg.

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Second Avenue subway is hurting demand for yellow cabs on Upper East Side: Report

Second Avenue subway entrance with a yellow taxi on the street

The Upper East Side’s taxi dependency has dwindled thanks to the opening of the Second Avenue subway this year, according to a new report.

Yellow cab pickups and drop-offs have dropped in the areas surrounding the line’s stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets, NYU’s Rudin Center for Transportation found in its latest study, published Tuesday.

“When people are offered an efficient service that works well, is comfortable and well-lit, they will absolutely opt for that over personal transportation, like taxis,” said Sarah Kaufman, a co-author of the report, which offers a narrow snapshot of how new subway service can impact congestion and bring equity to transit-starved neighborhoods.

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Sikh Cabbie Says Passengers Attacked Him, Ripped Turban off His Head

Sikh cab driver Harkirat Singh standing beside his yellow taxi

Harkirat Singh, a practicing Sikh, says his turban is like his crown. He’s wearing a new one this week after his old one was ripped from his head by passengers who attacked him, calling him “Ali Baba.”

Singh said he picked the passengers up at Eighth Avenue and 30th Street in Manhattan shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday.

The passengers typed in their destination in his GPS: Jerome Avenue and 165th Street in the Bronx. But when they got there, the passengers — three men and a woman — said he was at the wrong location.

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Have taxis finally hit rock bottom?

NYC taxi medallion plate 8K26 on a yellow cab hood

A taxi medallion just sold 
for the lowest price in more than 
a decade. But new rules could 
help owners avoid huge losses

One of the 13,587 pieces of tin that give yellow cabs the right to pick up street hails sold in March for $241,000, a low not seen since the early 2000s and a far cry from the $1.05 million that a similar taxi medallion fetched in 2014.

For some quarters of the taxi industry, the sale is one more sign of how far the yellow cab business has deteriorated since Uber gained traction in New York starting in mid-2014. The previous low for a medallion sale during the past year was $325,000, last April, though there also have been sales, sometimes in foreclosure, for as much as $600,000.

But the low sales could be unreliable indicators, given the rule changes implemented by the Taxi and Limousine Commission to help stabilize the market for medallions.

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