NEW YORK–New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez has put forth a plan that seeks to help save the cab industry in this city, and specifically the owners of taxi medallions.
Sharp depreciation in taxi medallion values have led many borrowers to walk away from loans to purchase them, and in the process caused steep losses for credit unions that make such loans or that have purchased participations in the loans.
Now Rodriguez is proposing legislation that would allow medallion owners to be allowed to operate a second taxi on a single medallion. The additional vehicle could then be leased out to help cover medallion loan payments, he said.
Rodgriguez and some medallion-owner advocates said the plan—which could potentially double the number of yellow cabs on the street to some 26,000—would help the industry better compete with Uber and Lyft, which continue to add vehicles and drivers and face no regulatory limits, according to Crain’s New York.
A spokeswoman for the Taxi and Limousine Commission told Crain’s the agency is reviewing the bill.
But some see flaws in the plan. “You’re putting double the amount of cars on the road and halving the rental value to the owner,” said Brad Gerstman, a lobbyist who runs New Yorkers for Equal Transportation Access, which works with taxi owners and disability advocates, told Crain’s New York. “If you add in further regulation of Uber, limiting them from Midtown to some extent, then you have something.”