Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Before the pandemic, Richard Wissak’s taxi garage - a fleet of a 140 taxis - was open around the clock.
"This has always been a 24/7 operation, and the cars would come into the shop to get maintenance, put up on a lift, oil change, brakes checked," Wissak said. "Everything had to be good for the New York city streets.”
Now, it’s quiet.
He closed operations at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, in March 2020.
He sold about 50 taxis, and most of the remaining vehicles in his fleet are parked, idle, in the lot.
There is not tourism. And people want to ride bikes like in a third world country.
Taxis are dead.
The tourism bit is solid and that'll be a slow recovery since NYC had so much international tourism. However, I don't think that recovery is going to be enough because rideshare like Lyft and Uber are doing well and have rebounded strongly since the depths of the pandemic. They were already taking a massive cut out of taxis before the pandemic and this has greatly accelerated the process.
I think people would prefer to ride bikes more like a first world country than a third world country. More like Denmark, the Netherlands, and Japan where bike ridership especially urban bike ridership is high rather than places like the Philippines or Bangladesh which are thought of as pretty terrible for bicyclists.
Yeah. I don't get this notion that the prevalence of bike ridership and third world go hand in hand.
I had Rick Steves Europe streaming in the background the other day and he was highlighting Amsterdam (or was it Denmark) and apparently there, bike riding is everywhere. I don't know much about Amsterdam (except pot and prostitution is legal there) but I don't think it's third world by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, Bloomberg has said that he got the idea of bringing citibike in NYC after spending his time in Europe.
Before the pandemic, Richard Wissak’s taxi garage - a fleet of a 140 taxis - was open around the clock.
"This has always been a 24/7 operation, and the cars would come into the shop to get maintenance, put up on a lift, oil change, brakes checked," Wissak said. "Everything had to be good for the New York city streets.”
Now, it’s quiet.
He closed operations at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, in March 2020.
He sold about 50 taxis, and most of the remaining vehicles in his fleet are parked, idle, in the lot.
Yellow Taxis were on the declined with all the rider apps (Uber, Lyft, Via, etc). You can order a taxi from anywhere and go anywhere. Yellow taxis limited themselves by only servicing Columbia University south to Batter Park, JFK, and LGA. Green taxis was another blow to their market share. Now, the worth of a medallion is below 200k or so
With respect to tourists, are the swanky hotels of NYC going to allow people to drag bicycles in and out of their lobbies, elevators, etc?
Swanky hotels are usually in the area served by bikeshare. These are bikes you can rent and usually with set docking areas where you lock and unlock them that are placed throughout the city and you do not need to return them specifically to the dock you checked them out from them initially. They're fairly common in major cities and even smaller cities, and NYC's most prominent bikeshare system is Citibike. If for some reason you don't like the idea of using bikeshare or do not have a working credit or debit card, there are multiple hotels in the city that provide free bike rentals: https://www.nycinsiderguide.com/nyc-...-free-bicycles
Swanky hotels are usually in the area served by bikeshare. These are bikes you can rent and usually with set docking areas where you lock and unlock them that are placed throughout the city and you do not need to return them specifically to the dock you checked them out from them initially. They're fairly common in major cities and even smaller cities, and NYC's most prominent bikeshare system is Citibike. If for some reason you don't like the idea of using bikeshare or do not have a working credit or debit card, there are multiple hotels in the city that provide free bike rentals: https://www.nycinsiderguide.com/nyc-...-free-bicycles
I've tried them in a few different cities, and generally I find this to be one of the better ways to get acquainted with and get around cities that have them. Walking gets you the details and the like, but it gets pretty tiring without covering all that much ground, cars in city centers is often just being in traffic or highways, so I find bikes to be a pretty good medium. If you aren't used to city biking, then I recommend doing it with someone who is, though I'm sure plenty of tourists just go for it.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 04-26-2021 at 08:39 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
