New Year, Newfound Shrugging Respect For The Future

After being barraged with “scary” new improvements and “privacy-limiting” geegaws, cab drivers apparently have finally stopped spitting in customers’ faces when asked to use technology:

One year after taxis were outfitted with machines so passengers can pay with plastic, drivers admit they might not like the new system, but they can live with it.

When the high-tech GPS and credit card devices were first installed in the city’s 13,000 cabs, there was fierce opposition from many drivers.

They would openly grumble if a passenger did not have cash — or sometimes lie that the machine was broken.

Drivers also railed against the company that had installed the machines, saying they lost money because it got to pocket 5% of each credit card fare.

“When drivers say it’s not working, they just don’t want you to use it because of the price they have to pay. But what you gonna do?” said cab driver Jean Francois after taking a reporter on a $3.70 ride from Chelsea to the West Village, earning himself a $1.30 tip.

“It’s business. Sometimes you lose; sometimes you win.”

During more than a dozen cab rides across the city over the last week, the Daily News found drivers now seem resigned to the new system.

When asked if it was okay to use a credit card, some replied: “Sure, no problem,” while others greeted their passenger with a more subdued nod of the head and “Uh-huh.”

“Mostly, the people still pay cash,” said another driver who took a reporter across midtown Manhattan. The ride cost $7.30, and he received a $1 tip.

“But I guess it’s good for those that don’t have any.

“I try not to worry about it. It’s just the system.”

The Taxi and Limousine Commission says drivers should embrace the machines, as figures show the average tip is now 19%, compared with 12% to 15% before the machines were installed.

“We have moved beyond the point of some drivers expressing a fear of the unknown about these systems … with most drivers truly appreciating their benefits,” Commissioner Matthew Daus said.

De Facto Secession

Or at least involuntary isolation:

When the cash toll at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge rose from $9 to $10 last March, many Staten Island drivers thought they had seen it all.

But the sticker shock of the sawbuck pales in comparison to a toll hike as high as — get this — $14.

That’s how much the round-trip toll could conceivably cost as part of the MTA’s proposed package of fare and toll hikes.

The authority outlined a variety of options yesterday meant to achieve a projected revenue increase of up to 23 percent, to plug a $1.2 billion budget gap.

Nothing is set in stone; rather, the proposed changes, including a $6.25 express bus fare, a $2.50 or $3 local bus or subway fare and severe service cuts, reflect the outside threshold of pain.

Of the $14 toll threat, MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin said, “Is it a possibility? It’s there, but it’s in the upper range. I don’t know where we’ll be in the end.”

Price Of Slice To Rise In 2009?

So given the history, I guess this means what I think it means:

Proposals being considered by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could raise the base subway and bus fare as high as $3, the 30-day MetroCard to $105 and bridge and tunnel tolls to $7 next year.

Hit The Bottle

On the heels of plastic bags, another plan that masquerades as an environmental initiative but is really a revenue-raising instrument:

Billed as an environmental measure, efforts to require a deposit for juice and water containers never got very far. Now, it’s being put forward, somewhat controversially, as an untapped revenue stream in a tight fiscal circumstance.

One nickel at a time.

Budget officials say those nickels would add up to $25 million this year, and $118 million in the next fiscal year. An expanded bottle bill is in David Paterson’s plan — granted, in the back — to bridge a $1.5 billion end-of-year budget deficit and cut spending for the next budget cycle.

“It may be that it takes an economic crisis to get the bigger better bottle bill passed,” said Laura Haight, senior environmental associate at the New York Public Interest Research Group, which has long advocated the bottle bill’s passage. She said it would bring in even more money than the budget office projected, and would reduce litter and increase recycling by giving consumers a financial incentive not to throw away their garbage.

Here’s the money trail now: you buy a six pack of Rheingold, and pay an additional 30 cents in deposits (5 cents times 6 bottles). If you’re a responsible citizen, you enjoy the Rheingold responsibly, rinse the bottles and return them to the nearest grocery store, which gives you back your 30 cents. The grocery store keeps 12 cents (2 cents per bottle) as a handling fee, and the same distributors that brought you your Rheingold take away the bottles.

If, however, the bottles end up with the rest of the garbage, or lost, or smashed, the beer distributors keep your 30 cents, and use it to offset what it costs them to cart away the responsible citizen’s bottles.

The new proposal would send the thirty cents to the state coffers. Additionally, it would put deposits on everything from Snapple to orange juice containers, increasing the amount of things New Yorkers can return to stores.

Beverage distributors . . . I hate those guys.

The Zero-Sum Economics Of Congestion

Hey, pointy-headed technocrats — our economy depends on the right to double park:

As mass transit riders continue to enjoy a quicker commute with the Bx 12 Select Bus Service, business owners along the route are calling it quits.

Norman Ephron, longtime owner of Imperial Linoleum and Carpet Co. Inc., said within 30 days of the lane instillation, seven stores along E. Fordham Road were forced to close due to lack of business. He said the Select Bus Service is to blame.

“Why should customers come to Fordham Road if they can’t park,” the storeowner questioned, referencing the lane that eliminated 40 parking spaces from the heavily trafficked thoroughfare, including a handful in front of his 361 E. Fordham Road establishment.

. . .

After 40 years operating at the same site, he said he’s never once experienced the enormous decrease in business that’s occurred since the Bx12 express bus went into operation at the end of June.

“A lot of my business came from people picking up their carpet and taking it home. Now they can’t pick it up anymore.” His loading area now services the Bx 12.

Ephron said that also for the first time in four decades, nearly 90% of his 35-employee staff is working half days, down from their previous full-time hours.

“I don’t know who thought of the idea but they’re killing us,” he said. “I’ve been sitting her all day and haven’t seen a single customer.”