Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
David Yassky

Yassky: Taxi Plan Will Reduce Car Ownership, Improve Safety

Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky says legalizing street hails for livery cabs will reduce car-ownership rates and improve traffic safety. Photo: Adams for News.

Since Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his plan to create a new class of taxis allowed to make street hails outside the Manhattan core, most of the coverage has focused on the potential effect on yellow cab medallion owners' profits or livery drivers' earnings. Less has been written about the broader effect such a plan would have on the city's transportation system as a whole (Cap'n Transit being a notable exception).

Taxis, after all, make up a significant component of that system. A 2006 report by Bruce Schaller, a former policy director at the Taxi and Limousine Commission and now a top DOT official, estimated that in 2004, yellow cabs drove 815 million miles each year, while livery cabs drove more than double that, 1.733 billion miles.

Now that the legislature has passed the plan -- it still needs Governor Andrew Cuomo's signature -- we checked in with TLC Commissioner David Yassky to see how he views its wider impact. He argued that the outer-borough taxi plan would help reduce car ownership and improve traffic safety.

Though he couldn't quantify the likely impact of the Bloomberg taxi plan on car ownership or trip mode-share, Yassky said that "I think we can say that we know what direction the numbers go in."

"A healthy taxi market gives people an alternative to private car ownership," he said. People currently use illegal street hails "to go home from the supermarket with heavy bags, to go to and from the subway stop if you live a mile from the subway, to go to church or visit friends on a Saturday or Sunday. Those are all things that you need a car to do outside Manhattan if there's no decent taxi service… That's the systemic impact."

Yassky also made the case that the taxi plan would make livery drivers more likely to follow traffic laws and drive safely: "We see with the yellow taxis that when you have a valuable license, that gives the driver a stake in following the rules." Certainly some yellow taxi drivers break rules, he said, but "they do have to worry that if they rack up too many driving infractions, they're going to lose their livelihood." That isn't true in the underground market for livery cab street hails. "Since the drivers activity is illicit to begin with, we have no way to give them an incentive to follow the more mundane but important traffic rules," he said.

Interestingly, Schaller's 2006 report found that livery cabs generally had fewer crashes per mile than yellow cabs (both were far safer than private vehicles). The two classes of vehicle take different trips in different locations, so it's possible either that Yassky's intuitions are correct and liveries will become even safer, or that making liveries more like yellow cabs will push up their crash rate.

Yassky wouldn't say whether legalization would make hailing a cab outside the Manhattan core more or less affordable. "Rates will be set through TLC rulemaking," he said. "We'll have to look at the economics of the industry."

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Tuesday’s Headlines: Clean that Plate Edition

On the eve of new city rules about covered or defaced plates, the king of Criminal Mischief offers a public service announcement.

April 15, 2025

What Trump’s Tariff Chaos Will Mean For Transportation

Hint: expensive cars, expensive trains, expensive bikes, expensive everything.

April 15, 2025

Free Buses Would Mean 12% Faster Rides And 20% More Riders: Study

Want faster buses? Make them free. The benefits will end up paying for themselves, says Charles Komanoff.

April 14, 2025

Is ‘Walk Score’ Really Just a ‘White Score’?

A provocative new paper argues that one of America's most popular real estate tools is driving investment to predominantly white urban neighborhoods, without meaningfully expanding walkability for anyone else.

April 14, 2025

Monday’s Headlines: ‘And The Nominees Are’ Edition

Streetsblog is up for two prizes at this year's Deadline Club awards. Plus more news.

April 14, 2025
See all posts