NYC Hybrid Taxis Unfit and Unsafe, Says Report

This report could just have easily looked at the Corolla and come to the same conclusion.

It's not the Prius' hybridness, it's the relative lightweight construction. (Relative to a Crown Vic for instance).

 

I've often thought the same thing about heavy duty use such as taxi use. The taxi company in Canada hasn't reported such issues, but I could definitely see how more care should be given to a Prius than a Crown Vic. I believe many of the old school American cars are over built, although under-engineered compared to many Japanese models. Building more beef, can compensate for lack of engineering. This overbeef can also compensate for slamming into curbs (which a rear wheel drive car in general can handle better), overloading, etc. I believe the Prius in the hands of the average person will certainly out live a Crown Vic in normal driving... but in more careless driving, the Prius seems to be a lot more fragile.

Let me restate this in a separate way. An American car's electronics and some other components will fail long before their heavy duty suspensions, body's etc. These components aren't really affected much by slamming into curbs, etc. Japanese cars are the opposite. Their electronics, engines, tranny's, etc will last much much longer but all the other components will start failing such as week driveline components, weak suspension systems, etc.

 

The report makes a valid point about partitions...in cities where partitions are required. (I don't ride in many taxis and don't recall any that had partitions, but I don't go to NYC either.)

Despite the sensational headlines the report fails to deliver on the other aspects. If the author loves the crown vic so much he might do better by castigating Ford for not designing a hybrid version (or other variant) that can get 25+ mpg.

 

This is a hack job. Were the modified Crown Vics put through crash testing ?
Why won't a Crown Vic with side airbags fall under the same criticism as an airbagged hybrid ?

This is just an attempt to strangle hybrid regulation by slow death in committee.

Mingoglia, I don't know how much the dollar analysis of hybrids will suffer do to typical nyc driver conduct, but the changeover is to cut pollution, not to save the driver money. Moreover, I say just change the system over to how Vancouver has it: the driver pays for the car and fuel, instead of the cabbie only paying for fuel. Any complaints of the upfront costs are easily deflected by spreading the cost of the cabbie license out over a couple of years. When the cabbie owns the car, he won't feel obliged to run roughshod over curbs.

 

It's total BS! Heavy cars do seem to be more resistant to crushing the passengers in a collision, unless you consider a collision with an immovable object, such as a bridge abutment. Then their "better construction" works against them big time. More mass means a lot more energy to crush them.

I wonder how much the oil companies and the taxi companies are paying the guy to come to this conclusion? The taxi companies are very cheap, and don't want to buy new cars. The oil companies have already been caught paying people to fight hybrids.

 

Modified Crown Vic's...Give me a break. Most of the yellow Crown Vic's are just repainted PA. State poilice cars from the looks of the people that were snapping them up at the last Pa. auction. This guy sounds like some disgruntled person who lost his phoney baloney consulating job with NY.

 

An alternative would also be the hybrid camry that is a larger car not to far being the vic

 

so one would expect the manufacturer of the crown vic to just roll over and take up it the wahzoo??

expected an article along these lines months ago.....having waited this long before publishing means they dont have facts to back up the claims...if they had, it would have been presented much much earlier...

they only waited until the last second (or in this case last 30 days) in hopes of delaying the inevitable by getting a temporary stay order...which does nothing really but cost someone extra money to run studies, delays the implementation of a vehicle that will save us gas, etc...

just another waste of time

 

soiunds like Right Wing conspiracy. Don't laugh.

 

I think the author had some interesting points, but they were offeset by the fact that the article was so one-sided against anything other than the Victoria. Looking at both sides would have given his arguments more weight.

 

But... the speed limit in Manhattan is 25 MPH or lower if posted.

 

I don't even think many of them are equipped with side airbags.... too old.

 

Bullseye. According to this article, NYC citizens should not be riding GM hybrid busses.

 

We have several Prius cabs here in the Denver area. In the run-up to the DNC week before last, there was a mention of them on local TV. The company says they have worked out fine.

And there are other posts on PC about Prius taxis with hundreds of thousands of miles of good service.

But of course, we don't need a divider between cabbie and passenger yet.

 

Indeed, but the article did not try to prevent new Crown Vics from being taxis.

An article that showed data demonstrating a problem between side airbags and current partitions would deserve to be taken seriously, and we could talk about either removing the side airbags or modifying the partition ...

For ALL taxis affected, regardless of hybridness or age.

In a non-hack job form, this is a call to engineer a smart partition.

 

That would be Ford and they are discontinuing the Crown Vic anyhow and the car used most as its replacement is the Ford Escape so they are not complaining. Its the taxi companies due to the cost of the switch that are complaining. Funny, it will save them money in the long term.

 

If the NYC taxis actually learned how to drive they they wouldn't have the problems. The Typical Taxi driver is harder on cars then I was when I was 16. They gun the car off the line and continue to accelerate until they have to slam on there brakes. I wonder what type of milage the PRIUS taxis are getting in NYC. If the Taxis just drove less aggressively they would double the milage they would get.

 

This is all politics. The only difference is that this time the shoe is on the other foot. The City dictates which vehicles can be taxis. For ages only the Checker Marathon could be a taxi. Someone lobbied (guess who) that other vehicles should be allowed and that all "old" taxis need to pass "safety" inspections. "Old" taxis also presented an image poblem for the City. New Fords replaced Checkers because the new cars didn't need inspections and Ford could build a car cheaper than Marathon who only had one customer base. Now Ford is doing what it can to protect this market from competition because they know that given a choice their vehicles will disappear from the fleet within a few years. If Ford could slap a blue oval on a Prius this wouldn't be an issue.

BTW there is a posted 35mph speed limit on 10th Ave which is a main artery feeding the Lincoln Tunnel.

 

I'm not positive about NYC, but in most US cities the fleet owner buy the cars and maintain them, but the cabbie foots the fuel bill. In Vancouver the cabbie buys both car and fuel. The Prius has become the taxi of choice there.

So I agree that Ford is unlikey the key player here (although they like the publicity, and likely support the machinations going on). This smells of fleet owner self interest.