Free Republic

While taxi drivers in New York City may have finally "ridden" out the absolute worst effects of enduring the ridesharing boom and the pandemic at the same time, the road to clearer skies still looks dim. That's because, as was pointed out by @JBaksht on Twitter this week, taxi medallions have still plunged 90% over the last decade.The plunge in medallion value came at the same time that Lyft and Uber began to register hundreds of thousands of daily trips in New York City. Prior to the pandemic, Uber had peaked at over 500,000 trips per day, while Lyft was...

An impassioned statement by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is drawing renewed attention on a push within the City Council to bail out New York City taxi drivers saddled with outstanding medallion loans. At a congressional hearing last Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez, whose district in the Bronx and Queens is home to many immigrant cabbies, lashed out against the predatory lending practices that led thousands of drivers to borrow huge sums of money for overpriced medallions. She called directly for a bailout. “These are everyday people, most of them immigrants in New York City trying to start to start their lives and live up...

This is a subject we’ve been tackling here for a while now. With the advent of Uber, Lyft and other gig-economy outfits, a lot of pressure has been put on taxi drivers that don’t deliver a similar quality of service. Part of the resulting economic distress has come from a simple lack of customers, but the problem runs deeper than that. Under the traditional, corrupt system of taxi “medallions,” the municipal government has been able to regulate how many people are able to attempt to earn a living by offering rides. In exchange, they had to pay an increasing amount...

Last October, New York City officials held a special auction of 27 heavily discounted taxi medallions that could be used only with cabs powered by natural gas or by a combination of gasoline and electricity. Eighteen of the licenses were sold, at an average price of $222,743, one-third less than the cost of a regular medallion. The Taxi and Limousine Commission praised the program as a first step toward the reduction of harmful emissions. One problem: The commission never got around to approving any alternative-fuel vehicles for use as taxicabs. It is now trying to back away from the sale,...

Army Reverses Stance and Will Continue to Distribute Medallions That Cite Bible Verse Elizabeth A. Davis/Associated Press Jul 1, 2004 KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Army has reversed itself and will continue to help a nonprofit group distribute honorary medallions that cite a Bible verse. Fallen Friend, which since 1995 has distributed nearly 2,000 medallions to survivors of those killed in the line of duty, had been told by the Army in May that it could no longer help forward the medallions because the inscription "John 15:13" was inappropriate and might offend some families. The verse, which is not on...