Mean green streets
Cabs once 'hailed' as saviors now a di$aster
New York’s green taxis were supposed to be the great transit equalizer, bringing new and safer travel options to underserved outer-borough commuters.
But five years after they first rolled out, the initiative is running on fumes as more drivers switch to black cars, leaving outer-borough and upper Manhattan riders to choose between ride-sharing apps such as Uber and illegal gypsy cabs.
“It’s like green cabs barely exist here. I almost never see them, especially when I’m looking for one,” fumed Selma Huerra, 55, as she searched for a cab in the Fordham Heights section of the last Thursday.
Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg created the green cabs in 2013, promising they would dramatically increase “the availability of legal, street-hail taxi service to the millions of New Yorkers who live or work outside of Manhat- tan’s Central Business District.”
Like yellow cabs, the cars have meters “so riders don’t have to haggle over fares,” a jaunty 2013 public-service announcement about the program boasted.
“You may be seeing a lot more green now that the borough taxis have hit the streets,” a voice-over proclaimed.
One-fifth of the green cabs were supposed to be handicapped-accessible — another reason officials claimed they would change the game for commuters.
The city sold 6,000 permits the first year and said the fleet would grow to 18,000 by 2016.
But the numbers never materialized, and now the program is in a free fall.
At their apex in 2015, 6,300 green taxis made a total of 19.2 million trips — roughly 52,700 per day.
Last year, there were only about 4,000, and they made just 11.7 million trips.
Fare-box revenues have tanked from an average of $862,099 a day in May 2015 to just $331,105 per day in January this year.
Frustrated drivers blame the city for not seeing the initiative through.
“The city never fulfilled its promise to us,” said Juan Carlos Quelal, 48, who bought two green cabs with his wife, Gabriella Peña, in 2014 and sold them in February and May of 2017 because they couldn’t make ends meet driving them.
“In the beginning. it was very good. We got a lot of support from the promotions,” he said.
For instance, the site BoroTaxis.org, which the city created to take riders’ suggestions for where the cabs should be deployed, is now defunct.
“The outer boroughs are hard to dominate over all the illegal hails,” added Nancy Soria, vice president of the advocacy group Green Taxis of New York.
In just one hour last Thursday, 20 drivers of black livery cars attempted to illegally pick up a reporter from the busy corner of 184th Street and the Grand Concourse in The Bronx. Only three green taxis passed by in the same period, and all already had fares.
Many outer-borough taxi drivers have switched over to Uber because it offers “an enormous earning opportunity by connecting drivers with more rides,” according to Uber rep Alix Anfang.
“This is especially helpful as they travel into less dense areas in the boroughs where street hails are even harder to come by.”
Others who bought handicapped-accessible vehicles have begun taking work from the MTA’s Access-A-Ride program, according to Soria.
“They like it because you turn on the meter just like a street hail, and then MTA pays you right away,” she said.
Drivers have held demonstrations demanding the city better regulate app-based ride services such as Uber and Lyft.
TLC spokesperson Rebecca Harshbarger said that “rules on accessibility in the for-hire vehicle sector, approved late last year, are anticipated to increase demand for green taxi service.”