The number of yellow taxis on New York City streets is growing post-pandemic – but passenger demand has not kept pace, and a third of taxi medallions remain dormant, according to the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC). NYC law limits the number of yellow medallion taxis to 13,587. With roughly 9,000 medallions currently “hacked up,” a third of medallions are currently “in storage.”
“We had over 9,000 taxis in service in January, 1,000 more than the same time last year,” said TLC Chair David Do. That amounts to about a 12% increase in the yellow taxi fleet, and is the largest number of working taxis since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. However, yellow cabs made only half as many trips in January 2024 as they did in January 2020, TLC data show. While the number of available yellow taxis is up by around 12% over the last year, taxi trips citywide have only increased by 4%.
Source: Union Bulletin
