Liu: Just Stand There and Count
While Con Ed was getting the welcome treatment in the Council chambers, the chairman of the TLC was next door in the Committee Hearing Room jousting with Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu over the issue of "illegal street hails" of livery cars.
TLC Chairman Matthew Daus was asked how big the problem was.
Daus said he didn't know and that it's difficult to calculate.
Liu, who's kind of a numbers guy, suggested pointedly that the solution was "not rocket science."
Daus: "To have a crystal ball and a magic wand, and to have a satellite photo and to try and guess how many, you know, cars are picking up illegally is just simply, that's ridiculous--"
Liu: "Commissioner, let me give you a simple way to do it. Just send an inspector to observe various street corners or subway stations, unannounced, and just count."
You can listen to the exchange here, a portion of which is below.
Liu's right, Daus is wrong. Obviously, the reason livery cabs proliferate outside Manhattan is because there is a demand that yellow cabs do not serve (the same is true with "dollar vans" that supplement the poor bus service outside Manhattan). Yellow cabs need a HUGE incentive to leave Manhattan, because they think they won't make any money in the so-called outer boroughs and they have a negative perception of the people and neighborhoods there.there.
The only problem I see with livery car street hails is that sometimes I can't get one when I need one. Fortunately not very often.
Dump the medallion system.
matt daus is a desk jockey who brownnosed his way through legal positions and as an "advisor" and "counselor" to other small minded bureaucrat at NY CDA and TLC to get to where he is. make him stand on the freakin corners in queens and count the cars. about time someone called daus out on the carpet.
Livery car hails are illegal
But they sure are useful! Change the law!
Manhattan south of 96th Street to be exact.