Why do all New York City taxis look the same?

[Uosdwis_R.Dewoh]

@Telemark

And the vehicle models need to be approved by the commission, so only a few types of cars can be official taxis.

Taxis of New York City - Wikipedia

Interesting that only one car on that list is a diesel. Here in Helsinki almost all taxis are diesel. The only non diesel taxis I have seen were all Priuses, and that is a rare sight.

[Tom_Tildrum]

@robardin

Well let’s see.

Clearly there’s a lot of demand for taxis in NYC, yet there are a very fixed number of Taxi Medallions for sale to do this legally. They are not available just for walking in to the DMV, showing a license and filling out an application form, they are available only through relatively rare auctions held by the city; the most recent one went for $766,000 (that’s for ONE medallion, good for driving around ONE yellow cab in New York City). There’s a strong aftermarket for them, too, as they can even be seen as an investment vehicle (ha): the going price for a Medallion was only $339,000 as recently as 2004.

That’s a lot of money invested in a scarce but highly in demand resource. Similar to, say, Union-licensed construction contracts for doing work around the city. Or hauling trash away. Yes sir. You might say it’s a sort of racket, with some people paying other people to Make Very Sure their investments are not eroded by undesirables moving in on the territory, capisce?

I understand the risks. I guess my question is, how would I be discovered? How hard is it to make a fake yellow cab that looks authentic enough to fool passengers?

[MikeS]

@Uosdwis_R.Dewoh

Interesting that only one car on that list is a diesel. Here in Helsinki almost all taxis are diesel. The only non diesel taxis I have seen were all Priuses, and that is a rare sight.

Diesel passenger cars aren’t nearly as popular here in North America, for various reasons. They experienced a spike in popularity in the late '70s, but a combination of shoddy construction of the diesel models, tougher emissions standards, and lower gasoline prices meant that the market switched mostly back to gasoline by the mid-'80s.

[SmackFu]

@Tom_Tildrum

I understand the risks. I guess my question is, how would I be discovered? How hard is it to make a fake yellow cab that looks authentic enough to fool passengers?

On one hand, it would be quite expensive. Now they have touchscreens in the back and they take credit cards, and missing those would be a big tipoff to any experienced taxi rider. Plus the outside would have to look perfect.

On the other hand, even if it was expensive, it wouldn’t be $700,000.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@Tom_Tildrum

I understand the risks. I guess my question is, how would I be discovered? How hard is it to make a fake yellow cab that looks authentic enough to fool passengers?

IT isn’t fooling passengers you have to worry about – they don’t really care. It’s fooling all the other legal cab drivers you have to worry about. They are much more knowledgeable, and have an incentive to turn you in.

As to being caught, each cab has an individual id number assigned, which is displayed on the cab sides, and on the roof sign. Where will you get the number for your fake cab? If you just make one up, it will not be on the list of valid ones; if you copy a real one the info won’t match. Also, there is a license plate number on the back of the cab. Any cop can pull up the record for that plate, and see that it is not licensed as a cab.

[Billdo]

@Tom_Tildrum

I understand the risks. I guess my question is, how would I be discovered? How hard is it to make a fake yellow cab that looks authentic enough to fool passengers?

Another thing that you would have to do is reproduce the actual medallion that gets bolted to the hood of the taxi. The medallion has the taxicab number, which must be listed on the doors, the roof lights, the interior license, and the cab’s New York State license plate, among other places.