Taxi in New York City

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2005-01-12 22:48 · New York

The yellow taxi in New York is clean and in good condition. The film Taxi Driver seemed misleading to me, because before that, I though the taxis in New York City is as dirty as they described.

© Jian Shuo Wang. Yellow taxi in New York City

It seems Ford is the mainstream of car model. In Shanghai, almost all taxis are Volkswagen Santana. We took taxi from the United Nations to the Empire State Building. If we had bought 7 day metro pass and understood how the bus M42 works, we may save some money.

6 Comments
Taxi Driver was set in the 1970s', a whole different era in NYC. I'm too young to remember that time, but I grew up in Manhattan in the 80s and 90s, and alot of things looked like Taxi Driver in the mid-80s.
— Dave · 2005-01-13 01:14
I think Dave hit on the pretty obvious. New York in 2005 is like a cleaner, Disneyland version of New York in the 1970s.
— Patrick · 2005-01-13 04:57
Trying to ride mass transit in any new city much less a new country for the first time is very confusing. I'm just now getting used to riding the train in China, but still use taxi's local.
— bob · 2005-01-14 14:44
This site is very useful for NY's public transpo next time you're in NY: :)

www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/maps/submap.htm

My rule of thumb:

Downtown-Uptown-Downtown -> use subways

Crosstown -> use busses (except 42nd street)
— epi · 2005-01-17 10:20
Since Living in NYC for 20 plus years, taking taxi is relatively expensive. You can pretty much travel anywhere in all 5 boroughs (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island). For measly 2 bucks. What beats that? There is no limitation on the distance you travel, and oh, yeah, Free transfers from Subway Train system to Surface Transit (Bus system). Great Deal! The only gripe I have is that NYC train system is too old, some stations can be cleaner...
— Tony · 2005-06-16 13:10
I love reading your bogs about america. It is very interesting to see my country from a Chinese person's point of view. I was always curious what you guys thought of the food here. I also have a blog about my jouney to china if you would like to see it. You can contact me and i will send it to you !
— Niajha · 2007-07-14 21:17