Astoria, Transportation
Jun 20, 2014
Astoria Loves Those Green Taxis
It’s not surprising to us to see the love Astorians have for the green taxis—when we posted on Facebook last month that the Mayor was not keen on the green taxi program, many (…)
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It’s not surprising to us to see the love Astorians have for the green taxis—when we posted on Facebook last month that the Mayor was not keen on the green taxi program, many (…)
by Meg Cotner
Photo Credit: NYC TLC
It’s not surprising to us to see the love Astorians have for the green taxis—when we posted on Facebook last month that the Mayor was not keen on the green taxi program, many readers told us that they love this program and were disappointed in De Blasio for delaying the program, refusing to issue 6,000 green taxi licenses. He eventually relented.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Astoria is one of the most active neighborhoods for the green taxi program, according to taxi commission data. Meera Joshi, the taxi commission’s chairwoman, says “What’s actually surprised me is how quickly it’s taken off. Now we see them everywhere.”
And it’s not surprising that the yellow cab contingent is a bit nervous—they still do operate in Queens and the other outer boroughs (I’ll often take a yellow taxi home from the airport). Taxi industry officials say that yellow cabs have been losing fares to the green cabs in upper Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. Apparently the green taxis all together earned $18.6 million in fares and tips in April; in January it was $10.2 million. That’s a pretty solid increase.
Here’s a map indicating the neighborhoods with the most green taxi pickups since August 2013. Note the big green circle above Astoria
Image source: Wall Street Journal
Here’s to keeping the green taxi fleet in business, Astorians!
Green Taxis Gaining Ground in New York City [WSJ]
De Blasio delays borough taxi program [Capital NY]
De Blasio administration relents on green taxi expansion [Capital NY]
except that they idle in parking spots that are muni metered on 31st Street near the ditmars n/q. They don’t pay and they take up all the parking.
You can call the green taxis on uber. Doesn’t cost a dime more since you pay the green cabs directly.
Can you schedule them in advance, too?
I wish there was a simple website where you could put your location, destination and schedule a pick up time. I hate calling anyone for anything.
Is there an app for that type of thing?
Uber lets you do all of that.
There’s Uber (though you’ll be paying a premium).
Great to hear. The yellow taxis can’t really complain, they had their monopoly and the squandered it by ignoring large sections of the city
Besides the rules of the green taxis (that they cannot pick up people from Manhattan), what else do they do? are they cheaper?
Not cheaper, that I know of. They’re just *there*.
And having a meter and a cc machine means you don’t have to wait while the driver calls in your cc (scary these days) and you can see how much you should pay.
You can hail them through an app like Uber.