Thursday, August 6, 2015

Green taxis hogging up parking in Astoria


From WPIX:

What’s going on is a turf battle for parking spaces that are on the public streets. The taxis want the spaces so they can get the customers coming off the subway. But the businesses say they need these spaces for their customers.

“This has become a free taxi stand”, says Alfred Hansen, the manager of Grand Wine and Liquors. The green cabs line up outside his store next to the 30th street N and Q subway stop and park up and down the block, where it’s one hour meter parking. Hansen says the green taxis often don’t pay the meter and take up the spaces customers need to park and shop.

I spoke with a number of green taxi owners who say they usually pay the meter, but when I checked, very few had any receipts on their dashboards. The drivers insist they do pay and say they have a right to these public spaces, as any other vehicles has.

But some of the local businesses say the green cabs are monopolizing the spaces. When one pulls away with a fare, another is waiting to take its place. The manager of the local supermarket says “ there’s no parking. It’s very congested here. It’s not fair to the customers who want to shop.

7 comments:

JQ said...

this is why goddamn uber is taking over. When you herd under one particular station like raccoons hogging all the parking spaces and pissing off store owners and managers, in addition to denying customers service when it's an area you don't want to drive to.

I assume these people tried calling the cops but again to no avail since these look like normal businesses.

"It's a taxi stand...no, it's not a taxi stand" Move along jerk.

Anonymous said...

I wish that old couple would beat up all these disgusting third world taxi drivers! Those old people that beat up that taxi driver for almost killing them are my new favorite people now!

Anonymous said...

They need to build a Taxi stand with a dispatcher !

Anonymous said...

1. Green cabs parked in busy business districts.
2. Green cabs driving around empty in congested areas.

If only there were an app that could summon an available nearby cab to right where I am now when I needed one.

Anonymous said...

I'm all for getting the cabs out of those spots. But let's be honest folks. The store owners don't want parking for their customers, they want parking for themselves.

Chester the Dog said...

It is 31st street, not 30th street, WPIX.

Queens Crapper said...

Actually, the stop is 30th Avenue, not Street.