New York Cabs Are Getting Upgrades, Will Boston Follow?
Cab drivers are honking the horns, yelling at each other, and swerving in and out of traffic. This might be an image from any major city in the world. Cabs are cabs.
But, in New York City those cabs are probably yellow. In Boston, they are probably white.
Each city has their own regulations on taxi companies and more specifically on what the cars can look like and what features they must have. And as you might assume, these regulations change over time and cabs no longer look like this.
Though the look of Boston cabs has stayed the same for many years, and for that matter, so has New York’s, the Big Apple will be getting some changes to their fleet.
A new program called New York City’s Taxi of Tomorrow is set to launch April 20. The New York City Taxi and Limousine announced that it will begin allowing the Nissan NV200 as an eligible taxi car, and is calling it the “Taxi of Tomorrow.’’ These Nissans will be replacing most non-hybrid taxicabs in NYC when cars reach their retirement date. Many of the Nissans will be wheelchair accessible — one of the key changes the new fleet will bring.
Other amenities in the Taxi of Tomorrow will be passenger charging stations, reading lights, interior floor lighting, the potential to electrically power the cars, sliding doors, and more. If you’re in New York, you will soon be able to start riding in style.
Does Boston have anything like this in the works? Probably not.
Boston Police Officer Gerry Boyce, Police Officer for Hackney Carriages in Boston, said the regulations for Boston cabs haven’t been updated since 2009.
Back in 2008, then-Mayor Menino and the city tried to use regulations to make a law that by 2015 all taxis would need to be hybrids, but did not succeed.
Officer Boyce said this was not something taxi companies wanted to do.
Though this proposal was rejected, taxi regulations in Boston were updated in 2009 to accommodate for hybrid vehicles and haven’t changed since.
“There are certain dimensions that we require from them,’’ Office Boyce said. “Rear leg room 35 inches, rear headroom 36 inches, rear hip room 49 inches, and shoulder room 55 inches.’’
There must also be 10 cubic feet of luggage space.
Boyce said the dimensions used to be larger, but was changed to accommodate for hybrids.
What’s the most common car used?
“Toyota Camry is by the far the most common car,’’ Boyce said.
One of the other regulations the city has for cab cars is that the windows must be clear. Boyce said you can get clear windows with Toyota, but with Honda, you can’t.
Boyce said drivers need to get the car approved and licensed by the Boston Hackney Carriages unit, but that sometimes drivers “skip that step.’’
He doesn’t see any changes coming to Boston cabs in the immediate future, but only time will tell if cab companies need to up their game in the fight against ridesharing apps.
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