31 December 2003

I couldn't let 2003 just walk out the door without taking one last parting shot, could I?

There are, roughly, eight million people who live in and breathe the air of New York.  The city, not the state.  On a given weekday, there are many more than that, figuring people commuting from upstate, Long Island, Jersey, and Connecticut.  And if we leave it up to taxi drivers, there won't be one person left in a few years.  They'll all be dead.

For the second time in less than two months, we have had publicized stories of a passerby being killed by an out-of-control taxi.  Instance #2 came just days ago:

An out-of-control taxi struck a sidewalk newsstand yesterday and sent debris flying into an East Side man who had just bought a lottery ticket there, killing him, police said.

The impact of the noontime crash smashed the kiosk at 57th St. and Second Ave. to bits, yet didn't leave a mark on the man working inside.

But 76-year-old Ralph Onorato, who had just picked up a newspaper and the lottery ticket, was struck by pieces of the newsstand and pinned against a building behind him, witnesses and police said.

The fatal accident unfolded after the cab driver hit two other cars - including another taxi - at 58th St. and Second Ave., forcing one of his front wheels to pop off, witnesses and police said.

His car zigzagged for another block before suddenly veering into the newsstand.

The cabbie "drove like a crazy man. He drove so fast," said Iris Katz, an Israeli visiting New York, who was in a rental car next to one of the other vehicles struck.

This follows less than two months after this was reported in the Daily News:

Gerald Sadesky, 62, who had worked at 720 Park Ave. for almost 30 years, had a leg torn off when the cab jumped the curb and slammed into him on E. 71st St., police and witnesses said. He died at the hospital.

And of course, Mayor Bloomberg wants to add how many hundreds of taxi licenses in the city to generate more revenue for the general coffers?  Because it's not to make New York an easier city to get around in.  Traffic already moves at a snail's pace, "Thru Streets" or not, and part of the blame is thousands of taxis swerving and stopping right in front of you to pick up or drop off a fare.  Never mind the empty curb space seven feet away, just stop right in a traffic lane.

The only thing surprising about these two incidents is that we don't hear about them more often.  We've all seen it, shaken our heads about it, commented and even screamed at them about it:  taxi drivers flying down streets to the point of almost going airborne through intersections, flying through red lights, cutting cars off, stopping in the middle of roads, and honking like a pack of coked-up geese heading south.  It's almost as if, if you fail the driver's test badly enough, they offer you a hack license.  If you happen to be unfortunate enough to be driving next to one of them and need to get over, you'd be more likely to get sympathy from an Al Qaeda member.  But if they want to get over, they'll turn your car yellow trying to prove Einstein wrong that two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time.  They'd run over their mothers to get a fare.  And apparently, people who aren't their mothers.

And it's not limited to the yellow cabs.  Private companies are just as bad.  In my neighborhood they go flying down the streets, honking at every intersection as if their world would end (or they'd get deported) if they had to use the brakes, or go at a safe and prudent speed.  They drive down streets not much wider than a car as if they're on the Autobahn, honk honk vroom.  If you see a car with a T license plate you can be sure of two things:  he's going to drive way too fast for the street he's on.  And he'll honk seven times before he's out of your line of sight.

And we as citizens just take it as the status quo:  we yell and complain and shake our heads, but in the end we don't do anything constructive, because we know deep down in our hearts that nothing will get done, because for the most part nothing ever gets done.  Welcome to politics.  Don't forget, this is a city that has spent almost eighteen years "rehabilitating" the Williamsburg Bridge.  The Brooklyn Bridge was built in thirteen.  With horses.  The Williamsburg was originally built in seven, and that was a century ago.  But I digress.  We jump out of the way and yank our kids and dogs back as they fly by, and we take it as The Status Quo, it's just The Way Things Are.  We take asinine taxi driving as "just part of living in New York."  We used to take porno theaters and drug dealers in Times Square the same way, we took subway crimes the same way, but someone did something about that.  Now it's time to remind cabbies that they're supposed to drive just like the rest of us.

The driver of the cab that killed Onorato had his license suspended.  Wow, big steps.  Doesn't say that he's in jail, which is where you and I would be, fellow New Yorker, if it had been us behind the wheel.  Mayor Bloomberg has called for an "occasional review" of cab drivers' qualifications.  I'll throw my review in right now:  they all suck.  It was also noted that the taxi commission requires annual drug tests but no driver exams.  You're kidding, no driver exams?  I never would have guessed.  How about this: annual IQ exams?  A commission spokesman said that "an investigation and suspension of the taxi driver's license are routine when a cabbie is involved in a serious crash."  Hit two cars and killed someone, yeah, I'd consider that a wee bit more than serious.

Bloomberg wants to stop noise?  Improve the quality of life?  Make New York safer?  Balance the budget?  He can take care of all four with one swift stroke:  take all those blue NYPD cars - the ones that drive around giving people tickets for parking three inches over a bus stop line and nine inches too close to a hydrant - and have them nail taxi drivers with tickets.  Not only will the NYC budget be balanced, but every taxpayer will get a $500 refund check next year.

Let the real cops keep doing their jobs, just turn the traffic cops loose on the cabbies.  Maybe then I can cross the street without worrying about becoming the next Ralph Onorato.

Happy New Year.  Take the train.  It's safer.