Expensive Taxi Ride
A man was bilked out of more than a thousand dollars after leaving his debit card in a taxi March 20. Police said the 34-year-old victim gave the taxi driver his debit card to pay the fare. When he exited the cab outside his West 73rd Street home, he forgot to take his card back. He contacted the card company March 22 and was told $1,329.80 worth of charges had been incurred.
Taxi Debit Card Scam
A woman’s checking account was drained after she was tricked into giving up her debit card to a cab driver. The 31-year-old Upper West Side woman was riding in the taxi Feb. 18. When she reached the corner of West End Avenue and West 66th Street at 6:52 p.m., she tried to swipe her card to pay, but the card would not work. The driver asked to see the card. He handed her back a card from the same bank. She swiped and paid her fare. Later, she tried to purchase something, but found that her account had been drained of $500. She realized the debit card the cabbie gave her had a different person’s name on it.
Taxi Share Plan
For Upper West Side commuters who do not mind sharing a taxicab, the city is about to launch a pilot program that aims to make the hailing process faster—and lower the price of a ride.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission is proposing six Manhattan locations for a group yellow taxi stand where riders can hop on and ride to Midtown, or anywhere
in between.
On the West Side, the two group-ride spots are planned for West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue and West 57th Street and Eighth Avenue. Read more
MUGGING, THRIFT AND URBAN ALTRUISM
Here’s a riddle: how did I get mugged, overhear a TV executive get fired by cell phone and get called the best person in all Manhattan by a Holocaust survivor?
Answer: by making split-second decisions to share taxis. The following is a partial memoir of an unrepentant cab sharer—who saves nearly a hundred dollars a month.
If there’s a moral to my memoir, it’s never ride with people who invite themselves, no matter how sweet or innocent they seem or how much you long to save another six bucks. Share your cabs with guests of your own choosing.
First: the mugging. It’s raining and miserably cold as I run across West End Avenue to grab a cab. A schlumpy guy in a blue shirt and no umbrella asks me, “Please can I get a ride?” Raindrops blur his thick eyeglasses. Read more
HAILING A CAB FROM THE PHONE
Wheelchair and scooter users can now hail a wheelchair-accessible cab by dialing 311 and asking for the Accessible Dispatch System, which then finds the nearest wheelchair-accessible taxi. The fare is the same rate as every yellow taxi. To accommodate these customers, the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission chose United Spinal Association to train taxi drivers to secure these devices.
