Firstly I’d like to appeal to you, especially to Director Ford, to reconsider developing the OTA, that is the Open Taxi Access program.    Aside from the good will you will be able to demonstrate by returning only about a four percent fraction of the money you have recently gotten from the drivers, the OTA will solve many problems that will not be solved, and have never been solved, by releasing more medallions.     Open Taxi Access will empower the people to find cabs and hire them on their own.    It will at the same time reduce the logjam at conventional dispatch and make more cabs available that are not hired through Cabulous.    

Many drivers are advocating the addition of an optional guaranteed  run-out fee, of an amount to be determined by the customer, to the City’s geographical extremes would be a business solution to a problem that medallions for so-called “peak times” will never solve, since they are only a political solution.   Such a fee would be a two-way guarantee, to the passenger that they would get a cab, to the drivers that they would not get a no-show.   Putting more cabs on the street does not make them available in any precise times and places.    Making the geographical extremes of the City actually appealing to the drivers is the best idea.   

Secondly I’d like to point out that the back-seat units were designed for New York cabs with partitions.    We don’t need them.   Computer manufacturers say don’t get too close to your computer; phone companies say don’t let your cell phone get too close to your computer.    All combinations of these proximity problems exist in the cabs.   And of great significance to many drivers, they violate “cab culture,” cramp their passengers, and are a potential safety risk in the event of a sudden stop.

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First posted 12/7/2011.

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