Credit Cards and "Taxi TV"

Having lived in cities almost all my life, I get nervous about celebrating positive change. Cities are by nature ironic, and if your city hears you extolling the increased cleanliness of the streets, it will send a garbage truck to turn over on your corner. Bask in the glory of a great new elected official, and he will get indicted in the morning or caught in a sex scandal the next night.

So I am a hesitant to say this, but New York's credit-cards-in-cabs system is great.

The Times reports that the cabbies, after early howls of outrage, have seen the positive side of the change -- thanks in large part to the fact that introducing credit card payment has turned driving a cab into one of the very few recession-proof businesses in town. The recession, indeed, has been good for the taxi business as companies have switched from black car services to cabs in order to save money.

For cab riders, convenience is far from the end of the story. Pay for a ride with a credit card and you not only have a tax record, you have a way to track the cab if you happen to leave something behind. With some luck, your lost briefcase could now be located in as little as 15 minutes.

Or, according to Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew Daus, if you want to complain about the cabbie, the credit card record will pin down the identity of the driver. If you think this is a small thing, imagine trying to actually identify the guy who you observed from the back of the head while he cursed, smoked or gabbed on cell phone. (In the future, you may be able to file a complaint from the screen in the back seat.)

Maybe this is the reason cab drivers have seemed better behaved lately. They're afraid you'll pay by credit card and use the record to drag them into the much-loathed cab court.

Judging the quality of the average New York City cab driver is a completely subjective business, based entirely on the luck of the draw. I once had a cab driver who was watching a TV while he was driving (he had placed a small portable TV on the dashboard) and yelled at me when I complained.

And visitors still encounter the legendary terror associated with kamikaze cabbies who speed through crowded city streets. Earlier this year, the auto editor of the Virginian-Pilot was unfortunate enough to suffer through such a terror trip in one of the city's impossibly cramped hybrid cabs.

"Imagine riding as a back-seat passenger in a Honda Civic with a thick partition behind the front seats to separate you from the cab driver. Now, imagine lurching across Manhattan as if escaping from law enforcement. Excuse me, but I can't feel my legs. Next time, I'm walking," wrote Larry Printz.

My big remaining complaint is "Taxi TV" -- the reports and ads beamed from the same screen where the desirable credit card info will appear at the end of the trip. The reports and ads are very boring, very annoying and on occasion impossible to shut off.

Commissioner Daus says this isn't a big problem. But to me, hell is a long trip downtown in a cab in which you are given tips on how to buff your nails and Jay Leno skits over and over and over again.

 

Comments

[jl4141]

I ride cabs in Manhattan regularly, and I agree 100% with what you say re Taxi TV, except I have never had any problem shutting it off (which I do every time without fail). I mean, if you, the rider, think Taxi TV is annoying, imagine how the driver must feel about it. Give the poor schmoe a break, and shut that thang off!

[TexasRed1978]

I just got back from my first trip to NYC, and I really loved that all the cabs took credit cards. I didn't know it was new. Plus, I was able to tip the cabbies more at the end of my trip when I was low on ones then I would have otherwise.

[Leefeller]

Amusing, one seems to always be hearing about New York, New York, Having lived in cities almost half my life, I get nervous hearing about cities and the stereotypical Woody Allen like trees and the forest phobias. It seems from this perspctive, any place out of New York must be just like being in the movie Deliverance!

As a person living in the country, maybe I should expand on my enlightened experiences feeding my goats, I do have the radio playing? Is my country bumkinness showing, why is it, I perceive New York as a city full of solipsist minded solipips?

In the end, I have not been to New York, so the painted picture in me mind is what is portrayed from those that live the life of riding taxi cabs? Well, must be off to turn up the raidio and feed the goats

[ROFLMAO]

Funny stuff! - I must say, though, that the NYC portrayed by almost any Woody Allen/ Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks movie is a desperate distortion - even Jerry Seinfeld fails to portray city living in any realistic way - in fact, the only realistic part of Seinfeld was the rare scene where they traveled on the subway and met up with strange people and had to fight their way in and out of the subway car.

No, NYC living is filled with constant noise and aggravation, dirt and danger. People step over bodies lying on the sidewalk, and do not make eye contact - it's more fear than unfriendliness.

I say, see NYC, it is an experience. Live there for a short time for the experience. But have an exit plan.

[Thomas W. Carroll - Huffpost Blogger]

I, too, love the credit-card option.

My pet peeve is cabbies who talk nonstop on the cell phone while driving. Less concerned about the danger -- after all, I risked my life getting in any wild cab ride -- but the constant chatter is annoying.