New York City's Hybrid Taxi Mandate Faces Legal Setback
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 11. 2.08
Bloomberg Makes News--Again
New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who earlier this year deemed the threat of global warming as serious as terrorism, has been making lots of headlines lately on both the environmental and political fronts. Aside from exploring a third mayoral term, Bloomberg has also been pushing for congestion pricing in the city, hybrid taxis, and renewable energy production on bridges and skyscrapers, to name a few. Unfortunately, his congestion pricing plan fell through and in October his hybrid taxi plan got challenged on safety concerns.
To make matters worse, as a result of that legal challenge "a federal judge [has] blocked the city Friday from requiring all new taxicabs to be fuel-efficient hybrids, hampering Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ambitious goal to make all yellow cabs green by 2012."
The lawsuit was brought by "the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, a trade association claiming to represent a quarter of the city's cabs." They opposed the regulation because "hybrids aren't safe enough for use as cabs, which take a beating on city streets." But as Treehugger Matthew McDermott recently pointed out, safety is certainly an issue, but it is not reason to continue using fuel inefficient vehicles.
However, it seems that from a legal standpoint the issue at hand was whether or not "the regulations were pre-empted by federal law." The new regulations would have "gone into effect Nov. 1 and required any new cab coming into service to achieve a fuel efficiency standard of 25 miles per gallon. The following year, that would have increased to 30 miles per gallon."
City Still Wants More Hybrid Taxis on the Road
Now, however, it looks like the city's options are either to appeal the case or to find other ways of forcing or incentivizing taxi companies to switch to more efficient vehicles. That shouldn't too hard if, for example, a cap-and-trade system is implemented in the United States, as that would effectively raise the price of greenhouse gas emitting fuels. But in the meantime, the judge "temporarily blocked enforcement because he said the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable financial harm if they were forced to comply with the rules by the deadline."
How many times do we have to hear the "we can't do it because it's too expensive routine?" Detroit said that for years until Honda and Toyota starting eating away at their market share, after all. Everything is too expensive, unless there are powerful people pushing hard for the money to be spent (think of the war in Iraq and the bailout of financial system, for instance.)
Via: Yahoo News
More on New York City Going Green and Mayor Bloomberg
Bloomberg to Create NYC 'Office of Sustainability'
Bloomberg Talks Sustainability
NYC's First-Ever Greenhouse Gas Inventory
NYC Passes Climate Protection Act
NYC To Increase Recycling
Insulate! Insulate! Insulate!
Hybrid Taxis in New York City Get Challenged on Safety Concerns
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Will there be farms in New York City's skyscrapers?
- Hertz Rolls Out Car-Sharing Program to Compete with Zipcar
- So Long 2008, and Thanks for All the Posts
- Rent A Hybrid Car the Next Time You Travel
Maala Conference 2008: Is Israeli Business Ready to Take Some Responsibility?
|
Reusable Dry Cleaning Bag Cuts Down Single Use Plastic
|
Rather than making vehicles safe to slam into a wall at 50 mph, how about traffic calming and driver training to make taxis safe not just for drivers and passengers, but for bicyclists and pedestrians as well?
Hybrids aren't that green anyways, if you consider how much of emissions are put out during their production and acquiring of raw materials (more than a conventional car or all-electric car requires). Here's a good article in Wired's June 08 issue about that:
http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-06/ff_heresies_09usedcars
Toyota currently trys to use recycled nickel and even if the manufacturing facility is coal powered over the cars life it helps the enviroment compared to other vehicles. Also hybrids are soon going to be made by the A123 systems.
Ken,
What, are you insane? You type something as absurd as
"Hybrids aren't that green anyways, if you consider how much of emissions are put out during their production and acquiring of raw materials (more than a conventional car or all-electric car requires). "
Then post a link to an article as proof. Only problem, the article first slams the Hummer comparison, then goes on to compare hybrids to used cars.
WTF does this have to do with comparing NEW hybrids to other NEW cars? WTF does this have to do with NYC mandating that all NEW taxi cabs be fuel efficient hybrids?
Why are you perpetuating the MYTH that hybrids are somehow worse than the average car?
Dope.
Did you hear they are coming out with a Toyota Prius Obama Edition? It runs on hopes and dreams! (That's a joke)
I use my hybrid to get to work everyday, except this one runs on nuts and berries. My legs can pedal me anywhere within 100 radius in a day.
The problem with hybrids is that they are more efficient in cities where it is easier to walk, bike, or take public transit. I'm all for incentivizing hybrids for taxis, but the general public should get much better incentives for just not driving.
It's worth discussing Willie.
I can get a Hybrid Civic that is claimed 40/45 mpg or a regular Civic that is claimed 25/36 mpg.
If my driving is mainly highway (where hybrids are of less benefit than in city driving) does the 9mpg better offset the added environmental impact of the hybrid specific components? How long does a car last? These days 200k miles doesn't surprise me, but will it go 250k? 300k? When does the battery need to be replaced?
Interestingly enough, I have a coworker who had an SUV and an old car. He started restoring the old car, fell in love with it and decided to get rid of the SUV. Even with a big V8, his old car gets 20mpg, slightly better than an SUV. I suppose it's a form of reduce, reuse, recycle as much of the parts he used were from wrecked vehicles, including the engine.
It's funny that your story uses a Yellow Cab with a 604 area code on it - more than half of Vancouver's taxis are hybrids! If you ask a cab driver why they've switched, it's all about the price of gas and the low interest loans that are offered on hybrids. As for safety concerns, one only has to compare the safety rating data to see that a Prius has about the same ratings as a Crown Vic, but I guess most people are still living with the delusion that "bigger is safer".
Ha ha ha, I love how it's a Vancouver taxi in the NY titled article. I was in NY 2 years ago for a week and I saw two hybrid taxis'. Now I just posted about this on Autobloggreen, but in Victoria BC (where I live) there is ~90% hybrids, you can't turn around downtown without seeing a prius, or camry hybrid. It's actually a nice sound hearing the regenerative whizzing in action.
JC,
How on earth is it "worth discussing" in relation to this article? Remember, the question I just asked is "in relation to this article". Please respond.
"How on earth is it "worth discussing" in relation to this article? Remember, the question I just asked is "in relation to this article". Please respond."
You missed this question.
If my driving is mainly highway (where hybrids are of less benefit than in city driving) does the 9mpg better offset the added environmental impact of the hybrid specific components?
In terms of a Prius, there really is no non hybrid, but we could compare to a Camry or something of similar passenger and luggage capacity.
Not every cab is used in stop and go city driving, many make fast long runs back and forth from airports so the highway mileage and environmental impact of extra components that are of little benefit is worth questioning.
I'm not claiming hybrids are worse, I'm saying it;s worth asking and worth looking into when and where they benefit and not try to make them a one size fits all solution to every problem, where in some cases it probably doesn't make sense.
Getting rid of some of the cabs and getting even better public transportation would probably improve the pollution and efficiency situation by a larger amount, but that's a whole other matter!
JC,
This article is about NYC getting told no due to SAFETY concerns.
This article is about NYC attempting to replace end of life taxis with new cars that must be hybrids.
This article is not about comparing new hybrids to used cars.
This article is not about comparing new hybrids to new cars.
Any clearer now? Good.
As for your talking about long haul taxis in NYC, you must not live in NYC or must be someone who has only been there a short while. Remember, this article is about NYC.
All that aside, should the city mandate MPG rather than technology? Yes, I say yes to that.
Willy, I got it the first time I read the article. You're just missing my point.
"All that aside, should the city mandate MPG rather than technology? Yes, I say yes to that."
but you're getting warmer...
JC,
You're being a blockhead. Knock it off, you are an adult, right?
Now, I'm off to hail me one O dem long haul NYC taxis. I hears me BigFoot's been seem drivn' dem! LOL!!!
This conclusion really agrivates me - when reporters make conclusions like " many times do we have to hear the "we can't do it because it's too expensive routine? " you cannot compare the financial resources of the big 3 auto makers, to the financial capacity of individual taxi drivers, and taxi companies. the reason why they do not put NEW cars on the road, much less NEW HYBRIDS is that they cost $25-$32 thousand dollars upfront to any car company, but also they require regular servicing because they are used for close to 300,00 miles before retiring. the cost to service a hybrid is 10-15 times more than the heavy-duty commercial cars used for taxis nationwide. now that does not mean that individual taxi drivers who have the money to buy hybrids upfront, and use thier cars for 10hrs a day for 6 days a week (taxi companies use cars 24/7) cannot afford to invest as they own thier cars and put much less use on them. also, when there are no hybrids that are made specifically to be driven 300,000 miles (over 3 years by the way) they taxi companies will be left to pay all expeneses -
I am all for 100% hybrid taxi fleets - however the big 3 must create or modify one of thier cars to that specification so that the taxoi companies can actually mainatain them for the 300000 miles with modest expense. it should be noted that in all cases after 100,000 or so hybrids need a new battery which costs $7000 to replace - there are a host of other issues that can be resolved and when done, you can bet that every taxi company will want to save money of gas and switch to hybrids.
that 90% of Vancouver is Hybrid taxis, whats that like 50 cars? I agree that we should have fuel efficient cabs, especially in NYC but to mandate before the technology is readily available, and has been tested for a full cycle is simply bad business and bad legislation. I am as pro-Bloomberg as it gets, but this plan was not clearly thought out. try to buy a new hybrid right now, guess what... there is a huge waiting list...... take the Big 3 Bailout - and force them to start making hybrid cars here in the USA in massive quantities so we can ship them overseas...if the rest of the world can subsidise the auto makers, why cant we?