Liberating livery cars: NYC taxi regulations.

• Author: Smith, Stephen J.
• Position: Citings - Brief article

NEW YORK IS famous for its iconic yellow cabs. But other cars-for-hire roam the city as well: livery cabs, often known as "black cars" Their licenses permit scheduled pickups and drop-offs, but pedestrians are not supposed to hail them from the side of the street. That requires a taxi medallion, a special permit whose price has zoomed past $500,000 and is fast approaching the $1 million mark.

In his State of the City address on January 19, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans to change the rules to allow street pick-ups by livery cars outside of Manhattan, legalizing a common but illicit practice. Livery car drivers argue that the highly regulated yellow cab system leaves the poorer, mostly black and Hispanic residents of the outer boroughs without street cab services and that yellow...