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Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.

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Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.

#61

Post by topherjaynes »

topherjaynes wrote: post #54
nikhilgk wrote: post #50

Thank you for posting this, could be useful to someone. But let me remind you that this post does not fall within the general guidelines for HN posting. For your reference: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Hacker News Guidelines What to Submit On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be:…

This is on topic and you wouldn't have objected if he put "start-up transportation advice for newbies to NYC"in the heading or the first line. This is a good tip for anyone who is working or having meetings in NYC. Getting around the city trying to meet clients or partners can be tricky and if you're in a hurry you don't have time to argue if the cab driver can get you there or not.

Or further down:

Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.

Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.

#62

Post by cosgroveb »

Is asking a cab if they go somewhere in a major city normal? Excuse my ignorance if it is, but I'm from a very small town (so no prior experience with cabs in general) and have lived in Chicago (city and suburbs at various times) for the last 5 years and I have never even thought to ask a cab driver if he goes somewhere in particular. And I've taken cabs pretty far within the city.

The only time I was ever refused was when I tried to get a ride to the suburbs (a mega expensive cab ride but I needed it).

Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.

#63

Post by sedachv »

There's a great book on NY cab drivers and their tricks from someone who worked there a while, the one catch is it's written in Russian as it is authored by an immigrant from the Soviet Union:

http://fictionbook.ru/author/lobas_vladimir/jieltiye_koroli/

It came out in the late 80s but the rules and the medallion system haven't really changed. The book describes the business and the psychology of drivers in-depth.

The book helped reinforce two opinions I hold:

Cab drivers are for the most part scumbags. I can't wait for self-driving cars and automated cab service.

"Political exiles" from the Soviet Union are for the most part scumbags (the author of the book is a "dissident" who worked as a propagandist at Radio Liberty but took up cabbying because that wasn't paying enough).

Now as to how this relates to the parent:

There are four reasons why a cabbie won't pick up passengers in NYC (these have been mentioned in various replies here):

1. Going from the city to the boroughs is a waste of time for cabbies.

2. Cabbies parked in front of hotels only want airport fares.

3. Cabbies racially profile for certain categories of people that have a reputation for paying their fares, tipping well, and unlikely to be muggers. This also depends on the time of day and pickup location.

4. In the 80s certain parts of the city were unsafe (going to Harlem meant being pelted with rocks and getting carjacked; not an exaggeration). Again, depending on who is going and time of day, there is still risk even today.

Yeah, robot cabbies, can't wait for them.

Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.

#64

Post by sedachv »

sebg wrote: post #7

Just because there are rules saying that something should happen, does not mean in reality that the thing will happen. Reasons why cab drivers could not pick you up: 1.) shift change in 15 minutes. So they can take you 15 minutes away but they can't drive an hour into Brooklyn and miss their shift change. 2.) Car maintenance, refueling. If the car is running low on fuel they can pick people up on short drives towards…

"1.) shift change in 15 minutes. So they can take you 15 minutes away but they can't drive an hour into Brooklyn and miss their shift change. 2.) Car maintenance, refueling. If the car is running low on fuel they can pick people up on short drives towards the gas station but it wouldn't make sense for them to go the opposite way."

99% of the time these are not the circumstances when a cab driver attempts a pick-up but refuses when he hears the location.

Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.

#65

Post by mikerhoads »

SHOwnsYou wrote: post #53
mynameishere wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err, no. It would be like XYZ random client coming to your boss and saying, "I want a website that does FOO. I'm paying your standard fee, and if you don't build it, I'm filing a complaint with the government." Also, FOO might just be something that statistically increases the chance of your boss getting robbed/murdered.

If your boss is required by law to provide FOO upon payment of the standard fee, then our examples are the same. Cab drivers aren't blind sided by the potential pitfalls of their job. They know the hazards when they start. To suggest anything else is not only ridiculous, but it undermines the judgment of cab drivers.

I'm questioning the existence of the law not the judgment of the taxi drivers. I'm also questioning why hackers would report people under this law in the transportation industry when an analogous law in their own industry would be rebelled against and circumvented almost immediately.

Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.

#67

Post by mikerhoads »

SHOwnsYou wrote: post #52
mikerhoads wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not an equal comparison. Your boss either owns the company you work for or was hired by the person/group that owns the company to tell you what to do. New York City does not own the taxi cab/service. A better example would be your local government creating a system that requires you to pay $100,000+ for a medallion just for the right to create code in your city and then forcing you to accommodate any potentia…

NYC might not own the yellow cabs, but they certainly dictate some of the rules governing them. The are extended that ability in exchange for the working agreement between the government of NYC and the yellow cabs. It is the exact same as "your boss... was hired by the person that owns the company to tell you what to do."

Of course they can make rules, but the rules they did make have simultaneously driven up cab fare and made the jobs much worse for the drivers/operators.

What I am saying is that these rules are not well thought out rules.

Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.

#68

Post by SHOwnsYou »

mikerhoads wrote: post #65
SHOwnsYou wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your boss is required by law to provide FOO upon payment of the standard fee, then our examples are the same. Cab drivers aren't blind sided by the potential pitfalls of their job. They know the hazards when they start. To suggest anything else is not only ridiculous, but it undermines the judgment of cab drivers.

I'm questioning the existence of the law not the judgment of the taxi drivers. I'm also questioning why hackers would report people under this law in the transportation industry when an analogous law in their own industry would be rebelled against and circumvented almost immediately.

If there were similar laws in my industry then I wouldn't have sympathy for myself.

I knew the risks of my industry before I started the job. I made a decision to take it based on my salary/benefits vs the potential hazards. Cab drivers do the same. The law is in place to prevent people from being exploited by cab drivers. If my industry likewise needed further anti-exploitation rules, I wouldn't be opposed to them.

But not only that, as fun as it is to debate the merits or pitfalls of laws regarding yellow cab drivers in NYC, at some point it is important to recognize that the laws are a certain way and until they are changed or made "blue", they are the system that we have to work within.

Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.

#70

Post by mikerhoads »

SHOwnsYou wrote: post #68
mikerhoads wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm questioning the existence of the law not the judgment of the taxi drivers. I'm also questioning why hackers would report people under this law in the transportation industry when an analogous law in their own industry would be rebelled against and circumvented almost immediately.

If there were similar laws in my industry then I wouldn't have sympathy for myself. I knew the risks of my industry before I started the job. I made a decision to take it based on my salary/benefits vs the potential hazards. Cab drivers do the same. The law is in place to prevent people from being exploited by cab drivers. If my industry likewise needed further anti-exploitation rules, I wouldn't be opposed to them.…

Your last sentence confuses me. The way to change them is to first debate their merits and pitfalls. Your entire case seems to be "The law is the way that it is and thats final, anyone who doesn't like it just shouldn't be a cab driver". My argument is that "this system is inefficient and does more harm for the majority of consumers and cab drivers while benefitting the larger cab companies that can work their way towards a monopoly or oligopoly easily so we should act, as consumers, to reform it (or at the very least jeer it)".

If there is a similar law in your industry you'd just give up? Your argument of knowing the risk beforehand is irrelevant. I'm not a cab driver nor do I want to be, I'm just pointing out that this system is ill conceived and as most of us our entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs or just problem solvers in general I am surprised that this sort of scheme of creating an artificially high barrier of entry, price fixing and regulation has received such a positive response.

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