The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) published its 2018 Factbookin September, offering insight into an industry that has undergone significant change in recent years.
The 2018 TLC Fact Book can be viewed in its entirety here: www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/2018_tlc_factbook.pdf
The TLC collects and publicly shares a wealth of data about taxis and for-hire vehicles in New York City. The data, along with the TLC’s engagement with stakeholders, helps the agency in its attempts to create smart policy that ensures professional, safe and accessible service.
The Factbook provides a range of facts, from trip trends to lost property, the number of wheelchair accessible vehicles, and the number of electronically-requested taxi trips. For the first time, it also includes facts about shared rides, after this data in the for-hire vehicle sector became available last year. The data also illustrates the international diversity of professional drivers in New York City.
“Change has always been a constant in the taxi and FHV industries, but the pace of change has been unprecedented over the past several years,” said Commissioner Joshi. “This Factbook provides a multitude of ways to quantify these shifts. It is a practical and valuable tool for drivers, owners, businesses, consumers, and transportation think tanks and we are proud to bring this level of transparency to the public”
Since the prior Factbook was published in 2016, there have been important changes to the industries the TLC regulates. The Accessible Dispatch program, allowing passengers to remotely “hail” a wheelchair accessible taxicab on demand, has expanded across all five boroughs. Whether you are in the Rockaways, Coney Island, Soundview, or Mariners Harbor, the program lets riders book an accessible trip via smartphone app, website, or by phone call. Almost 7,000 trips were provided by the Accessible Dispatch program in June 2018, and it continues to grow in popularity daily. There are also a growing number of Access-a-Ride trips taken in TLC-licensed vehicles, thanks to the TLC’s participation in an MTA pilot program.
Shared trips in New York City have also been on the rise. Between June 2017 and June 2018, more than 41 million shared trips took place. Some of the most popular neighborhoods for shared pickups include Crown Heights, the East Village, East New York, and Canarsie. The TLC continues to use available data to honor the city’s safest drivers with its annual Vision Zero Honor Roll. The event recognizes between 300 and 400 professional drivers each year since the Safety Honor Roll began in 2014. The stringent criteria for inclusion in the Honor Roll require that drivers have no crashes involving a fatality or injury, no traffic violations, and no violations of TLC safety-related rules for the past four or more years. The TLC supports drivers in their important work to keep streets safe with driver education and outreach.
Other highlights:
- The Upper West Side is the most popular neighborhood to electronically request a taxicab
- High volume for-hire service companies had the highest number of pick-ups in the East Village, followed by Midtown and Union Square.
- Saturday at 11 p.m. was the most popular time to share a ride.
- Over half of all drivers hail from Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Pakistan, the United States, and India.
- More than 85% of TLC-licensed drivers live in New York City.
- Since 2016, the Taxi Improvement Fund, which supports the adoption of wheelchair accessible taxicabs has paid out almost $37 million to vehicle owners, and $7.5 million to drivers. It is funded by a 30-cent surcharge on yellow and green taxi trips.
Created in 1971, the TLC is responsible for the regulation and licensing of over 300,000 yellow medallion taxicabs and for-hire vehicles, the men and women who drive them, and the businesses that operate and support them. The TLC is recognized as the largest and most active taxi and for-hire vehicle regulatory body in the United States.
To find out more about the TLC, or to review its rules, regulations and procedures, visit WWW.NYC.GOV/TAXIor call 311 in New York City, or 212-NEW-YORK outside of NYC.
