Desperate 2-for-1 bid to save taxi industry

Hoping to prop up the struggling yellow-cab industry, a Manhattan lawmaker is proposing a tested sales technique: two vehicles for the price of one medallion.

City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, chair of the Transportation Committee, pitched the idea during a press conference outside City Hall with more than 50 medallion owners he warned are facing ruin without relief from fastexpanding app-based car services, such as Uber and Lyft.

“This is a crisis that can’t wait,” said Rodriquez, who also plans to introduce legislation to provide a cash bailout for medallion owners partly funded by new surcharges on livery drivers.

The mayor’s office and the Taxi and Limousine Commission said they’d review the 2-for-1 proposal.

But sources said it’s not likely to get much traction at City Hall.

“There’s no real support for this here,” said one source.

Only one fellow council mem- ber joined Rodriguez at his event, Costa Constantinides of Queens.

Asked afterward if his plan has a chance of becoming law, Rodriquez said, “I hope so . . . I will continue to speak with my colleagues, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Supporters say the yellow-cab industry needs flexibility to compete with the more than 63,000 cars competing via app services.

Although 2,000 new for-hire vehicles enter the industry monthly, the number of yellow cabs — the only ones allowed to pick up street hails — is capped at 13,587.

Theoretically, medallion owners could double their income if they were allowed to operate two taxis at a time per medallion.

Rodriquez, an upper Manhattan Democrat, rejected claims that his plan could saturate the yellowcab market, saying there is enough demand for taxis and app services alike to prosper because of the Big Apple’s tourism industry.

“I think the market is there for everyone to do well in the City of New York,” he said.

Taxi medallions, which sold for as much as $1.3 million in 2014, have been dumped for as little as $150,000 amid the competition.

“The City of New York says we have to compete, but how can we compete?” said medallion owner Gloria Guerra. “They betrayed us.”

TLC spokesperson Rebecca Harshbarger said the commission has taken a number of steps to help ease regulations for medallion owners. Those include lifting a requirement that owners personally drive their cabs for more than 150 shifts a year.

Harshbarger added that the commission has also supported new laws that remove barriers to medallion ownership, including significantly lowering the transfer tax on medallion sales.

This is crisis that can’t wait . . . The market is there for everyone to do well. — Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, on his proposal to make one taxi medallion good for two vehicles without oversaturating the yellow-cab market