Saturday, February 12, 2011

From Gene to Sully

My favorite taxi blogger in New York has written about his recent interview with the Village Voice. He has an important point, which they ironically chose to edit out. In his own words:

"It's that these things are dangerous. How so? They are distracting and irritating to the driver. As if driving a cab in the streets of New York City wasn't distracting and irritating enough without them!

The analogy I make to passengers in my cab when this subject comes up, and it comes up often, is
how would you like it if, when you were flying in an airplane, there was a television nine inches behind the head of your pilot, the volume of which was under the control of the passengers? For that matter, how would you like it if this thing was nine inches behind the head of your bus driver? Well, guess what, statistically riding in a taxi is more dangerous than riding in either a plane or a bus.

The main justification for the existence of the city agency known as the Taxi and Limousine Commission is to ensure the safety of the passengers. That is priority number one. So to add an unnecessary and unwanted element into the environment of the taxicab which is distracting and irritating to the driver is utterly contrary to its mandate.

And it needs to be changed.

Thanks Eugene for pointing that out. Thought I'd help you spread the word. By the way, what attracts me to this post the most is that I have always regarded our profession, in a city like ours, to be akin to aviation. It's the same feeling I got from Captain Sully, the airline pilot who landed in the Hudson River, when he expressed that if pilots don't earn competitive wages, the industry will eventually lose the best and safest of them to lesser experienced ones. Same goes for taxi drivers in New York. We have as many reflexes as they have controls in their cockpit.

photo above thanks to zimbio.com

1 comment:

  1. Totally agree bro, we ARE in a cockpit...I was driving an old couple last year and was briskly going down a sidestreet between a double parked car and a ups truck, and I knew I had it, but the older woman in the back shrieked as I passed in between both without slowing down because I KNEW that WE were ok...WE being us as a whole, like an airplane ...I think thats where most people who think we are morons lose it...most of them don't even have a license !! She complimented me and said "that was great" to which I said "you should see me in the snow ! " ..which I try to avoid driving in LOL good stuff bro

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