New York Taxis Going Green

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that New York’s yellow taxi fleet will go entirely hybrid in the next five years. There are currently 400 fuel-efficient hybrids currently being tested and will increase to 1000 by October 2008 and eventually all 13,000 yellow cab will be a hybrid. The original yellow cab vehicle, the Ford Crown Victoria gets about 14 mpg while a Ford Escape gets 36 mpg. Although Hybrid vehicles cost more than regular cars, the fuel efficiency will save the taxi operators more than $10,000 a year. Yahoo also donated 10 hybrid Ford Escapes to the city. Bloomberg has a plan of reducing 30 percent of the city’s carbon emissions by 2030. The interesting part is that the government actually doesn’t own any of the yellow cabs and just sells licenses to drivers. Those individuals have to purchase their own vehicles that meet the specifications of the Taxi and Limousine Commission. It would be interesting to hear about the reactions of the current taxi drivers because I am not sure how they would react to this news. Although there is a slightly higher up-front cost in purchasing the cars, because of the extensive amount of driving on a daily basis, the cost savings from the fuel efficiency will be seen a lot faster than a regular commuter car. I think that the cost benefits will surely be appreciated by the drivers once they see how much money they save on gas especially since gas prices don’t seem to go down. Other cities will surely follow in this footstep.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ak8sz_C1lGiY&refer=us