The way New York cab drivers look and dress has been the subject of recent debate.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) is proposing adjustments to language on the rules about a driver’s demeanour. The current wording requires drivers to look ‘clean and neat’. The proposed change would add that they should have ‘a professional appearance’.
The agency is pushing to eliminate language that prohibits specific clothing including tank tops, underwear as outerwear, swimwear or cut-off shorts. The TLC says these references are dated and unnecessary.
“Drivers are ambassadors of the city, for tourists, for New Yorkers, as well,” said TLC Chairman, David Yassky. “But particularly you think of tourists coming to the city, getting into a cab and wanting to be greeted in a professional way.”
One New Yorker commented: “As long as the cab’s clean and safe, I’m fine with how they dress. They’re sitting in their cars all day. They should be comfortable. [It’s fine] as long as they’re pleasant and courteous.” The TLC will vote on the matter in January.
A handful of New York City cab drivers are to add an extra item of clothing to their wardrobes – bullet-proof vests. In a pilot scheme, a dozen or so cabbies will wear the extra protection in tough areas of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
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A New York City cab driver made two round trips totalling 200 miles to return more than $21,000 (£13,000) left in his taxi by an elderly Italian tourist.
Felicia Lettieri, aged 72, took a trip in 28-year-old Mukul Asaduzzaman’s cab on Christmas Eve, but left her wallet behind. It contained travelling money for her and six relatives.
Police said she shouldn’t get her hopes up of seeing the money again, but they’d reckoned without the honesty of Mr Asaduzzaman, who’s a medical student originally from Bangladesh.
The cabbie drove about 50 miles to a Long Island address he found in Mrs Lettieri’s wallet. No-one answered the door at the house, so he left his phone number and drove back to the city. Hours later, he received a call from the family, turned around and drove back with the money.
Mr Asaduzzaman refused a reward. He told the New York Post:
“When I was 5 years old, my mother told me, ‘Be honest, work hard and you will raise your station.’”
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Here’s a cautionary tale for those travellers who choose not to pre-book their onward transport from the airport.
Five French tourists, arriving at New York’s JFK, were led by a man into a vehicle that wasn’t licensed as a taxi service.
Plain-clothes police recognised the man as a serial hustler but, as an officer reached inside to take the keys, the driver sped off with the tourists, knocking down the officer in the process.
What followed was a scary high-speed police chase through residential streets, with the French visitors alternately ‘screaming and praying’. After about seven miles through two boroughs, the van crashed into a gate at a US Postal Service building in Brooklyn. One of the tourists was slightly injured as she tried to jump from the van.
The police chased two men on foot and arrested them. They currently face charges of second-degree assault and unlawful solicitation of ground transportation services, among other related charges.
For their troubles, the French guests received a bag of NYC goodies, including transit fare cards, passes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and tickets to see the musical Chicago on Broadway.
by Andy Moreton
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