Cab Phone

After the collision of the taxis, the emergency vehicle reached the crime scenes a few moments later, a small cab in light blue that passed into another one at a crowded crossroads in Manhattan. In New York City taxi riders have not been allowed to use cell phones for a ten-year period - not even the handsfree, which takes the New York metropolitan area one better than state laws. However, the strict regulations are almost completely untouched, even if research shows that mobile phone users are four time more likely to cause an accident.

Much of the load of reporting mobile phone misuse goes to those who might seem helpless or frightened as the cities struggle to find more efficient ways to tackle the issue - call it an outbreak of chatter. In the first six month of this year, the public authority issue only 232 subpoenas for mobile phone use in local taxis, or one pass for each 517,241 taxi trips during this six month timeframe, calculated on the basis of the city's population.

During the same timeframe in 2008, 411 subpoenas were sent out, or about one per 291,971 journeys. Admittedly, the leader of the taxi and limousine commission, the municipal administration that governs the sector, the fight against telephone use by the driver is still "a permanent struggle". "Matthew W. Daus, the European Commission's chief inspector, said the issue was not as serious as it used to be, pointing to a drop in cargoes and consumers' grievances in 2008 and this year.

But for many New Yorkers, the view of a cab driver using a cell phone while traveling has become an indestructible part of the city environment - the vehicle-like counterpart of walking Jay. With 20 cab journeys, which were carried out at different hours in Manhattan, more than a third of the driver spoke on the phone.

The New York regulations for the use of telephones in taxi cars, which were adopted in 1999 by the taxi and limousine commission because of complaints from the mobile phone sector, are among the most stringent in the state. Denver and Miami offer mobile phones for all taxi riders. New York City riders condemned for breaking the law will be fined $200.

But since the beginning of the century, when mobile phones blossomed for the first time, Kabbys have stayed a rare commodity. In 2007, fewer than 800 subpoenas were sent to yellows and varnishes, and a maximum of 2,285 quotations were sent in 2004. In 2008, the town began a spiking action entitled "Operation Secret Rider", in which police officers appeared as passenger to investigate the behaviour of taxi drivers.

"Every traveller can be our eye and ear," Mr Daus said, and added that the town has made it easy for travellers to file grievances. Studies show that the hands-free kits frequently used by taxi drivers, such as blue tooth headset and laptop microphone, are equally hazardous to scientists.

Cab riders say that their cell phones can be a life line in emergency situations and a facilitation in isolating 12 on the road for 12 hrs. They say they're less likely to be sidetracked as commercial vehicle operators. "Individual car owners do not gather the kind of expertise and expertise a pro taxi operator has," said Bhairavi Desai, managing partner of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which says it accounts for 11,000 of the city's taxiers.

It' hard to estimate whether the use of telephones in cabins has led to a more risky adventure for cab drivers. However, the Commission does not pursue taxis and limousines, let alone those resulting from the use of a mobile phone. While the State Department of Motor Vehicles records all urban crashes, while the use of mobile telephones is mentioned as a contributing cause to some crashes, the figures are not reliable because the reporting is not consistent.

New York, the most efficient way to interrupt a call, is not in the office of the municipal regulator, but in the customer's purse.