Controversial Plan To Expand Street-Hail Cab Pickup Faces Deadline

Livery Cab (photo by Kate Hinds)

(New York, NY -- Kathleen Horan, WNYC) Flagging a cab isn't quite a unique New York experience -- but its a quintessential one.  Pretty much forever, that experience has been limited to riders hailing yellow cabs in Manhattan.  Those living in the outer boroughs, or in Upper Manhattan, have to either call a car -- a livery cab -- or informally "hail" a livery cab, since it's actually illegal for such drivers to accept street hails.

Since January, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been trying to change that.   And the state legislature passed the bill he promoted last summer. But the plan to allow up to 30,000 specially marked livery cars to accept street hails in Upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs kicked up more than a little controversy.

Yellow medallion fleet owners argued a new class of taxi would threaten the value of their pricey medallions. Some livery bases that rely on pre-arranged calls worried that allowing livery drivers to legally accept street hails would undermine their business model. And disabled groups said the bill didn't include enough accessibility.

After the legislation's initial approval, State Senator Martin Golden, who was the bill’s original sponsor, said he signed onto the bill too fast, without understanding the repercussions. Golden said one of the issues is the number of proposed livery permits that could be available is too high.

Last month, Governor Andrew Cuomo's office convened a summit with key players to try to hash out a revised plan, but the Governor hasn't said what he'll do about the bill, which will die if he doesn't sign it by December 31.

As the deadline nears, stakeholders are either attempting to broker a deal—or hoping that the plan simply dies on the vine.

Changes in the bill could come during a special session of the legislature as early as this week.

If it becomes law, at least one opponent has promised to file a lawsuit to block any changes in court.