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In the streets and avenues of New York, you will come across waves of yellow taxis, the iconic color of taxis in New York. And, in the midst of the flood of vehicles, you will see a green taxi emerge from time to time.
Contrary to what one might think, these are not taxis that run on electricity or any other ecological consideration: the green taxis are the “Boro Taxis”, taxis which are only allowed to take passengers. in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, 4 of the city’s 5 major neighborhoods (the boroughs) and in Manhattan north of East 96th Street and West 110th Street. Green taxis therefore cannot pick up any passenger in the heart of Manhattan. They are also not allowed to pick up passengers at JFK and LaGuardia airports, unless a reservation has been made in advance.
18 000 Boro Taxis
But why this distinction between taxis and these limitations? Green taxis were put in place in summer 2013 to expand and better distribute the supply of taxis. A study by the Taxi and Limousine Commission showed that 95% of yellow taxis picked up customers below 96th Street and at JFK and LaGuardia airports, reducing the number of taxis in other neighborhoods accordingly. It was therefore necessary to expand the fleet of taxis in New York, with 18,000 new Boro Taxis, while ensuring that all these new taxis were not going to be concentrated only in Manhattan.
One last question remains: why this green color? For the record, the color “apple green” was chosen by the previous mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, who saw it as a nice nod to New York’s nickname, the Big Apple.
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