COMMISSIONER’S LETTER

By New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission Commissioner/Chairman David Yassky



Horn honking is as New York City as a pretzel at a hot dog cart, right? What would the city be without its ever present background soundtrack of blaring horns the instant a light turns from red to green, or when that last straggler pedestrian is taking just a second or two too long in the crosswalk?

City and State law, however, says that horns must only be used to warn of impending danger, to prevent an accident. There are very explicit signs to that effect located throughout the city, and in fact, one could hardly go a single block without being reminded of the $350 penalty that non-emergency horn use carries. While these rules are on the books for all motorists it‘s the NYC cabbie who gets the reputation as being the worst abuser. So, to that end, we decided to send a message to all our licensed taxi drivers using the text messaging capability granted us by the TPEP systems in every yellow cab.

The message was simple and to the point: “Drivers – remember that honking is against the law except when warning of imminent danger! Be a good neighbor and save yourself a $350 summons – honk ONLY in an emergency!” Knowing that people would be talking about the message, we put out an accompanying press release (http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/press_release_10_24_11.pdf) to let the media know the reasons behind it.

Not too surprisingly, this story reached many people on a visceral level and spread rapidly, even turning up in the international coverage of a number of European cities. Also not surprisingly, a few reporters got it wrong, and approached the story as the announcement of a “crackdown” asking questions like, “how many summonses have you issued since the message?” and “is the TLC mobilizing an anti-horn squad?” I took these questions as an opportunity to say, you know, it’s not always the job of a good regulator to chase after its licensees with a summons book…..sometimes, it’s just about communicating with them effectively.

There are so many positive aspects to the TPEP systems that we’re still discovering new and innovative ways to benefit from them, but one of the anchor capabilities we’ve had since day one is the ability to communicate directly – and I am emphasizing the word directly – with the drivers on a variety of topics via two-way text messaging. No middle people, no industry leaders as go-betweens, no industry publications, only direct communication.

So, like I said, what I’ve been telling these reporters is that taxicab drivers are our neighbors, and like many of our neighbors, sometimes all it takes is a reminder to let them know how something they’re doing is affecting others. In other words, an opportunity to be thoughtful and to realize that honking their horns at inappropriate times can negatively impact people’s lives. In other words, taxicab drivers are people of quality, people we can trust to take the concerns of others into account.

The good news is that many of these reporters who were so given to covering this as a simple crackdown story were receptive to the message, and were even willing to emphasize the positive communications aspect. It was a bit of a leap of faith for some of these reporters to present it that way in a cynical world, and I appreciated it when I saw the results.

The message today is simple: Please be a good neighbor, and don’t use your horn when you don’t need to.