STATEMENT REGARDING THE TLC’S ANNOUNCEMENT ON HYBRID TAXICAB AVAILABILITY

Ron Sherman, President of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade
July 16, 2008

Today’s TLC announcement has confirmed what we have known for more than a year - there is an alarming lack of available hybrids that have been proven to be safe and durable as New York City taxicabs. As a result, the TLC is asking taxi passengers and taxi drivers to become human crash test dummies on hybrid vehicles that have virtually no experience or safety records as taxicabs.

Nissan Altimas and Chevy Malibus, two of the three vehicles that automakers seem to be committing to the taxi industry, together comprise less than one quarter of one percent of all taxicabs. None have been operating for more than a few months – the Malibu, just a few weeks.

The TLC has ignored the warnings of Toyota – the world’s largest hybrid manufacturer – when it publicly refused to support the use of its hybrids as taxicabs because they were not designed for commercial use.

The TLC has ignored repeated warnings of automotive engineers, legislators, taxi drivers and taxi groups that small, light passenger hybrids should not be used as New York City taxicabs, which clock upwards of 100,000 miles a year each and often run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And finally, the TLC has ignored the laws of physics, which dictates that the larger the vehicle’s interior space, the safer the vehicle’s occupants are in an accident.

The City owes it to the 741 million annual taxi passengers and taxi drivers - precious human cargo - to ensure the safest possible taxicabs. We have asked the City to wait just a few months for the expected rollout of larger, safer, wheelchair accessible and more fuel-efficient vehicles that are being purpose-built for rigorous taxi use, but instead, it has decided to rush headfirst into the unknown.

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