MIA at TLC

We don’t have to guess that subway and bus trips nosedived during the coronavirus pandemic, as the MTA published ridership statistics, even during March and April’s darkest days. The same for bridge and tunnel traffic. Or passengers on ferries, including Staten Island boats. It was all important to know when things were terrible and it’s important to know as things improve.

But for some unknown reason, the Taxi & Limousine Commission shut down its data when coronavirus appeared.

After Mayor de Blasio’s choice for TLC chair, Jeffrey Roth, crumbled under City Council scrutiny last year, City Hall aide Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk won Council approval for the post in February. Maybe her instructions were that the mayor didn’t want to hear from TLC again. Or not, but when the virus landed, the data stream stopped.

Missing from the TLC website since winter are monthly trip summaries for yellow taxis, green cabs, app cars, liveries, black cars and limos. Also missing is updated medallion transfer numbers. And data on fares and driver earnings for app-car drivers. The info has been coming in: Every yellow and green have meters feeding to TLC, and Uber/Lyft have provided trip data since 2015, after a huge battle to get it.

We hear that TLC has even stopped sharing data with the city Department of Transportation, which uses it to evaluate Manhattan traffic, critical for congestion pricing.

Is Heredia Jarmoszuk embarrassed that ridership plummeted? It’s not her fault. But it is her fault that the statistics have gone missing.