Taxi Commission Approves Ride-Sharing Experiments
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
The Taxi and Limousine Commission on Thursday approved two experiments that will make riding in some yellow cabs a bit more like car pooling, a commission spokesman said.
The first experiment, which could be implemented this fall, would establish several pick up spots in Manhattan where taxis can take on more than one paying rider at a time during the morning rush hour. The cabs would then drive along a designated corridor and riders, who will pay a flat fee, could disembark at any point along the corridor.
In one example, officials said that riders could get in a cab at Pennsylvania Station and the taxi would take them up Avenue of the Americas as far as 59th Street, for a $4 charge.
Other possible pickup locations were Grand Central Terminal and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, with cabs from both those spots also heading up Avenue of the Americas. Uptown pickup spots, at 72nd Street and Third Avenue and 72nd Street and Eighth Avenue, would send cabs to a corridor along Park Avenue, to 42nd Street.
A second experiment would equip yellow cabs with meters that could keep track of two fares at once, allowing drivers to stop while carrying one passenger to pick up another street hail.
Up to 1,000 cabs — out of a total of 13,237 — could be equipped with the new meters, as well as electronic signs that would let people on the street know what neighborhood the cab was headed to, which would allow people to hail a cab going in their direction.
Riders in those cabs would be rewarded with a discount on a part of the fare — 50 percent off the mileage or wait time charges — for the part of their trip when the cab was carrying a second fare.
That program may not be ready until late this year or next year because new technology must be developed, officials said.
Both experiments will be run as pilot programs, to be evaluated after several months or a year.
The commission also approved a separate experiment for livery cars. That would allow locations like shopping malls to set up dispatch centers for the cars. That program could also begin in the fall.
