Uber and yellow cabs are teaming up, but questions loom

who comes out a winner here? [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] Big questions loom over partnership between Uber, yellow cabs Plus: NYC Transit is getting a new president from Boston. The MTA wants to pay a contractor to drive homeless people from subway stations to shelters. And old test stones for Grand Central's facade are still parked deep in Van Cortlandt Park. --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [a cab zips through Manhattan] Street Level/Flickr New York City residents will soon be able to order a yellow cab through Uber. Beginning this summer, Uber will begin listing all taxis on its app, a spokesperson for the company confirmed, following an agreement reached with the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission. But yellow cab drivers still have a lot of questions about the deal. The partnership between the two bitter rivals, first reported by the [Wall Street Journal]( comes roughly a decade after the arrival of ride-sharing apps helped decimate New York City’s taxi industry, pushing thousands of traditional cab drivers [into poverty](. It also comes as ride-sharing apps are now facing their own sustainability questions — a shortage of drivers has caused prices to spike nearly 80% since the start of the pandemic. The unlikely integration could help direct thousands of fares toward cab drivers, while alleviating supply problems faced by Uber. But advocates for taxi drivers raised immediate concerns, citing fears of pay and exploitation by the technology company. "Is it good news or bad news? That all depends on the payment structure," said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. "Right now we don't see a payment structure that's made for drivers' advantage.” Under the agreement, the city’s existing yellow cab apps, Curb Mobility and Creative Mobile Technologies, will integrate with Uber’s software. Riders will have the option to select a yellow cab on the app, which will cost roughly the same as a standard Uber, according to a company spokesperson. Cab drivers who accept a ride through Uber’s app will be paid under the same formula received by Uber drivers under a minimum time and distance rate set by the TLC. The formula differs from metered taxi fares, and may be higher or lower depending on a number of factors. But Desai said there are a lot of issues that still need to be ironed out. She told Gothamist that yellow cab drivers have higher expenses than those in the for-hire vehicle sector and should not be subject to Uber’s payment formula. She also noted that for-hire vehicle drivers also deal with sudden "deactivations" when the company faces an excess of supply – something that cab drivers should be protected from if they partner with the app. Freddi Goldstein, an Uber spokesperson, noted that drivers do not have to accept Uber trips. "They will see upfront how much each trip will pay (and therefore whether it's more or less than the meter) and can choose accordingly," she said. — [Reporting by Jake Offenhartz]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Former MA transportation head Richard Davey picked to lead NYC Transit [a close-up of new NYC Transit president Richard Davey] Stephan Savoia/AP/Shutterstock Richard Davey, a mass transit consultant and the former transportation secretary for the state of Massachusetts, has been named the next president of New York City Transit, making him the first person to permanently hold the job since Andy Byford resigned in January 2020. "Rich is someone New Yorkers should feel confident in as the agency moves forward with major accessibility improvements and other capacity and reliability-oriented upgrades like signal modernization, as well as megaprojects such as Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway and, in years to come, Governor Hochul’s Interborough Express," MTA Chair Janno Lieber said in a statement. In an [interview with the New York Times]( Davey said bringing back riders is his top priority. The Times also pointed out that, while working for Boston Consulting Group in 2017, he worked on the [MTA's Subway Action Plan]( which was created when [subway service was at a recent nadir](. [According to WBUR]( Davey "helped lead...tax increases to reinvest in transportation" in 2013, and "oversaw the implementation of controversial fares hikes at the MBTA to close a deficit, pushed the state toward electronic tolling, and worked to further major public transit projects." The MTA also noted in its press release that Davey is also a dedicated transit user who gave up his car over a decade ago. "He’s gotten out there more than any general manager we’ve ever seen," a leading transit advocate told [Boston.com]( back in 2011. — [Reporting by Jen Chung]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's What Else Is Happening A month into the mayor's plan to move homeless people off the trains and into shelters, little if any progress appears to be happening. Camera crews set up at the end of the line in Coney Island and Jamaica on Tuesday night mostly witnessed cops waking people up, telling them to get off trains, and then watching them get back on other trains heading back in towards Manhattan. This comes amid [news]( that the city has about 2,500 supportive housing units meant for homeless individuals that are currently vacant. ( [NY1]( In related news, the MTA is looking for a vendor to provide car rides for homeless New Yorkers from subway stations to shelters overnight. The transit agency put out a bid looking for a contractor to drive people from 16 different subway line terminals to various shelters each night between midnight and 8 a.m. Transit advocates, meanwhile, argue that the transit system shouldn't be paying for these rides, since the problem isn't that homeless people can't get themselves to shelters, but that shelters are seen as an unsafe option. ([NY Daily News]( Is assigning NYPD chiefs to patrol the subways making riders safer, or is it a "dog and pony show?" New York magazine columnist Errol Louis argues that the mayor's plan to have chiefs — the highest-ranking officers in uniform — patrolling underground is not only something they're not specifically trained for, it also puts the city at risk by removing them from their command centers. "To have the person in charge walking a beat on the platform, according to these chiefs, is a monumental waste of time that actually could impact public safety," Louis said. ( [The Brian Lehrer Show]( A bipartisan group of state lawmakers is trying to get Mario Cuomo's name scrubbed off the Tappan Zee Bridge. Democratic, Republican, and self-identified democratic socialist Assembly members have all signed on to a bill to remove Mario Cuomo's name from the Tappan Zee Bridge on the grounds that it was put there as part of a backroom deal led by his son, the disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "I have nothing against Mario," said Democratic Assemblymember Chantel Jackson, who supports the renaming. ([New York Post]( The chargers are in place in a Camden garage for NJ Transit's first ever fleet of electric buses. Camden was chosen as the first site for the electric bus rollout on environmental justice grounds — the county recently received an "F" grade from the American Lung Association for its air quality. The new buses are expected to start serving riders this fall, and the transit agency intents to have a 100% zero-emissions fleet by 2040. ([NJ.com]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- And Finally: These nearly forgotten stone pillars in the Bronx are part of Grand Central's history [pillars from the old Grand Central now plopped in Van Cortlandt Park] Scalfani's Flickr In late 1905, as architects were deciding how to construct the facade of the new Grand Central Terminal, they conducted a test: 15 stones were set down in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx in an effort to see how the samples would fare in the open air. In the end, two varieties were ultimately chosen for the station: Indiana limestone and a granite from Connecticut. But all the stones (except for two that were mysteriously removed) held up, and are still there to this day, a sort of Stonehenge — or [Cortlandthedge]( — right in the Bronx. Or [Cortlandthedge]( as some have called it.) Hikers on what's now called the John Kieran Nature Trail can see them, and thanks to continued preservation work from the Municipal Art Society, they're usually polished and graffiti-free. — [Reporting by Jen Carlson]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. 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