COMMISSIONER’S LETTER

I would like to begin this column with hearty congratulations for my colleague, Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall. Commissioner Weinshall has accepted a top position with the City University of New York as Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning & Construction Management.

In her new role, Commissioner Weinshall will oversee, among other things, a five year capital construction budget of more than $3 billion for the CUNY system's 23 colleges and other schools.

While City government will miss her talents and keen intellect at the DOT, we here at the TLC are fortunate indeed to be able to continue to benefit from her experience and dedication as she will remain on the Board of Commissioners after her April 13 DOT departure date.

I am also pleased to welcome a new member to the Board of Commissioners, Ms. Lauvienska Polanco, who will fill the vacant Manhattan seat.

Commissioner Polanco arrives with an impressive list of professional qualifications and accomplishments including time spent as an associate at Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald law firm, as a Court Attorney for New York State Civil Court, and as the Principal Law Clerk for the Bronx State Supreme Court. Commissioner Polanco has solid community credentials as well, such as her role (one of many) as treasurer/Board member of the Upper Manhattan Council Assisting Neighbors.

On other important subjects I think it comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the TLC that we have a remarkably active year ahead of us. We have an ambitious regulatory agenda (posted on the Taxi and Limousine Commission web site at:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/regulatory_agenda_2007.pdf) that is all about improving customer service, protecting the public, and generally enhancing the accountability of the industries we regulate.

Along those lines, we will be devoting much attention to the for-hire vehicle industry, and have already proposed rules that would make livery cars and black cars more identifiable to the riding public and more readily distinguishable from illegal, unlicensed vehicles.

The proposed rules would also provide enhanced safety of for-hire vehicles (FHVs) and reduce air pollutants emitted by such vehicles, by requiring that they be inspected by the TLC once every two years.

These proposed rules require that a for-hire vehicle be inspected at the TLC inspection facility upon the issuance and every renewal of the for-hire vehicle's license.

At the present time, both taxicabs and for-hire vehicles are inspected three times per year, but only taxicabs are required to be inspected at the TLC's own inspection facility. For-hire vehicles may be inspected at any inspection facility certified by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

In September 2006, the TLC's inspection facility was certified by DMV, and therefore inspection at TLC's facility will satisfy the requirements of an inspection at a DMV certified facility.

These proposed rules would also require that windshield and rear quarter window decals, to be provided by the TLC, be placed on for-hire vehicles at the TLC's inspection facility.

The proposed rules would also require that:

• the name of the base station with which the vehicle is affiliated be marked on the exterior of passenger doors on both sides of for-hire vehicles in a minimum of one-and-one-half-inch lettering,
  
  
• the name of the base station with which the vehicle is affiliated, the base assigned vehicle number, and the base station's telephone number be included. Only non-detachable decals would be permitted.
  
  
• Lastly, the proposed rules would require that the for-hire operator's license be posted inside the for-hire vehicle, as they are in yellow medallion taxicabs.
  
  

For safety's sake, the proposed rules would also require that vehicle and base owners surrender the FHV permit of any vehicle the Commission determines to be unfit or unsafe at which time the permit will be suspended.

On the medallion taxicab side another proposed rule would amend existing taxicab specification rules to comply with Local Law 52 of 2006 by providing vehicle retirement extensions for eligible clean air and accessible taxicabs. The rule would apply to taxicabs hacked-up on or after April 17, 2007 as well as clean air and accessible taxicabs in service as of that date.

While there are an impressive number of hybrid electric taxicabs on the road today purchased voluntarily by visionary medallion owners and "driver owned vehicles" (DOVs) who lease their medallions, the proposed rules would create incentives for taxicab owners to use clean air taxicabs by removing retirement extensions other than those that exist for hybrid-electric and other alternative fuel vehicles. The same advantage would exist for the purchasers of wheelchair accessible taxicabs that satisfy the TLC's specifications.

The proposed rules will base incentives on the vehicle's actual cleanliness - with Level 1 Clean Air Vehicles receiving an additional 24 months, and Level 2 Clean Air Vehicles receiving an additional 12 months—rather than simply by fuel type as had been done in the past.

Considering worldwide concerns about global warming and greenhouse gases the TLC's environmental priorities are right where they should be.

Elliot G. "Lee" Sander - Moving People in More Ways Than One!

By TLC Commissioner/Chairman Matthew W. Daus

I wanted to devote this article to a man who is a colleague and a friend, who has moved on from his long and distinguished service as a Board Member of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission to the helm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Elliot G. "Lee" Sander began his tenure with the TLC a decade ago bringing with him a wealth of transportation knowledge, both operational and policy, forged in practice as a respected former transportation commissioner between 1994 and 1996.

In addition to benefiting from his totally unique experience, he brought a palpable energy to the (unpaid) role of TLC Commission member, and was - without exception - always the first to volunteer to participate or lead analytical and other special projects. This, despite tremendous demands on his time as Director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at NYU; and as Corporate Senior VP/Director of Strategic Development for the world renowned transportation firm DMJM Harris.

In his years with the TLC, Lee saw and took part in the most significant regulatory changes and accomplishments ever undertaken, from the 17 point reform plan of 1998 to the prohibition of cell phones in 1999, and from our regulated industries' recovery after the devastating effects of 9/11 to the fare increase of 2004.

Lee's wellspring of knowledge allowed us, as a body, to study the issues before us with an eye toward their impact, not only on the taxicab or for-hire vehicle industries, but on the comprehensive transportation network.

We are simply thrilled and proud that Lee's new assignment puts him in charge of the largest, most dynamic and complex mass transit system in the world. We know the MTA will be in the best hands imaginable, and that both New York City and State will benefit mightily from what we at the TLC have had the opportunity to enjoy for almost a decade of Lee's public service at the TLC.

We paid tribute to Lee with a plaque at our most recent public Commission meeting, and while it takes advantage of a play on words, I think it sums up our thoughts quite nicely.

"As you leave us to help move more than a billion people per year at the MTA - we pause in admiration to think of how you moved us here at the TLC with your intellect, wisdom and integrity."

Watch the TLC web site at www.nyc.gov/taxi for updates, or to access monthly medallion price charts.

© 2015 TLC Magazine Online, Inc.