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The Leonard Lopate Show

A Makeover for NYC Yellow Cabs

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Yellow cabs are a New York City icon. But some designers and urban planners say they are badly in need a makeover. The Taxi 07 exhibit at the New York International Auto Show tells us what the yellow cabs of the future might look like. Deborah Marton is executive director of the Design Trust for Public Space; Davin Stowell of Smart Design leads a team of designers trying to make the taxi's design more intuitive; and Andrew Salkin is First Deputy Commissioner of the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Slideshow: Taxi Exhibit


Comments

  • [1] Tim from East Village, New York March 29, 2007 - 11:04AM

    How about sliding doors on every cab? Cab doors springing open are sudden death for cyclists. I was "doored" by a cab once and whenever I hear the rattle of the fare ringing up I have a post-traumatic flashback. In my opinion, this would improve the bike-friendliness of the city by a factor of ten.


  • [2] vb from nyc March 29, 2007 - 12:26PM

    What a great idea Tim! Cabs often park temporarily in bike lanes.

    I love the hybrid cab. I also like the Smart Design partition idea in slide 3.
  • [3] matthew from midtown March 29, 2007 - 01:45PM

    TV monitors in cabs? I remember when they tried that a few years ago. Everyone I know who rode in one, including myself, would start to get sick and would try to get the driver to turn it off. Would drivers want to clean up more messes?
  • [4] Jeremy from Upper East Side/Midtown West March 29, 2007 - 01:51PM

    Having moved to the City a year ago, I feel as though I have adapted to Living with Cabs quite thoroughly. It is the opposite end of the spectrum from where I was living before, where you had to find a hotel Downtown in order to ever find a cab.

    I find the design shown in the third slide of the slideshow to be quite useful. I often feel as though I am putting a driver out by having four in my party, waiting for him/her to clean off their seat. The leg space that you could get with a design like the third would come closer to those amazingly spacious cabs that you find in London.
  • [5] jason from brooklyn March 29, 2007 - 01:55PM

    what about the idea of taxi stands in the outer burroughs? how many times have i hailed a cab in manhattan just to have them refuse to take me to williamsburg?! i know this is because they can t pick up fares outside of manhattan. if there were taxi stands in brooklyn, then maybe i could get a ride across the bridge.


  • [6] Tim from East Village, New York March 29, 2007 - 09:02PM

    I think redesigning taxis should be more than just having a bunch of TV screens in the back. (I feel like the show was going this way) I'd like to see cabs play a better part in improving the quality of life in the city. Since city cabs rarely need to go very fast, they could be compact electric vehicles with zero emissions. (Souped up golf-carts, perhaps??) Maybe then New York wouldn't be #1 in the country for air pollution.
  • [7] Rick from East Village April 08, 2007 - 09:58AM

    Bring back the Checker!


This thread is closed.


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