Smartphone apps serve every practical purpose these days, from locating an escort service for Cousin Ernie to finding the lowest price on Ducks in Blue Bonnets Collectibles for Aunt Hester. Now, an app exists for finding a taxi within your vicinity. It’s currently operating in San Francisco, with the potential to gear up in NYC.
That is, if Brooklyn Heights resident and NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission chairman & commissioner David Yassky has his way. He writes about the upcoming convenience in a New York Daily News Opinion piece today, “Relax, tap an app and hail a cab: Car services object, but consumers will benefit.”
He writes, “As part of Mayor Bloomberg’s drive to make New York City government more tech-savvy and accessible, the Taxi and Limousine Commission has proposed rules that would enable taxi-hailing apps. (They) are slated for a vote Thursday, but face stiff opposition from big car service companies. If the technology exists to allow a would-be passenger to ‘e-hail’ a taxi driver—and that technology does exist—regulations shouldn’t stand in the way.”
This follows Yassky’s insistence that BHB reported on a couple weeks ago that yellow cabs get rid of the much-loathed “off duty” lights, instead offering two options: available and unavailable.
