A one year taxi experiment is set to take place in the “Big Apple”, starting this week.
The concept is to promote cab-sharing on three major routes across the city. Stands will be erected where queuing passengers will be able to share rides with other commuters. This should reduce fares for travellers but also increase the amount of profit made by cab drivers.
The New York Times has provided an example of how both parties will benefit — a customer would pay about half the usual fare price, but the driver could possibly be ferrying four people, resulting in twice the usual fare revenue.
However, not all taxi drivers are looking forward to the scheme. The director of New York Taxi Workers Alliance believes that the scheme may reduce driver’s taxi business into a lottery — the lucky drivers will pick up four passengers at a time, but for every cab with four passengers there could be three cabs sitting empty.
However, whilst Taxi sharing is more common across Europe and other US states, New York is not completely alien to sharing cabs with strangers. A taxi stand in Yorkville, has offered sharerd rides for some time. The stand even has it’s own etiquette rules similar to those unconsciously kept on all public transportation – no chitchat! Perhaps this cab sharing system will make its way across to London, where black cab drivers have complained about a lack of business and tube prices are forever rising?
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