Taxicabs of New York City

The taxicabs of New York City are widely recognized icons of the city and come in two varieties: yellow and green. Taxis painted canary yellow (medallion taxis) are able to pick up passengers anywhere in the five boroughs. Those painted apple green (street hail livery vehicles, commonly known as "boro taxis"), which began to appear in August 2013, are allowed to pick up passengers in Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens (excluding LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport), and Staten Island. Both types have the same fare structure. Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). It also oversees over 40,000 other for-hire vehicles, including "black cars", commuter vans and ambulettes.

Taxicab vehicles, each of which must have a medallion to operate, are driven an average of 180 miles per shift. As of March 14, 2014^[update], there were 51,398 men and women licensed to drive medallion taxicabs. There were 13,605 taxicab medallion licenses in existence. By July 2016^[update], that number had dropped slightly to 13,587 medallions, or 18 lower than the 2014 total. Taxi patronage has declined since 2011 due to competition from rideshare services.

As of September 2012^[update], there are around 7,990 hybrid taxi vehicles, representing almost 59% of the taxis in service—the most in any city in North America. The Nissan NV200 won the city's bid to become the "Taxi of Tomorrow" to replace most of the city's taxi fleet, with its introduction scheduled for October 2012. Nevertheless, this decision has faced several lawsuits and criticism, with the NV200 subject to comparisons with more cost-effective and widely adopted models. As of March 14, 2014^[update], 6,000 Street Hail Livery (SHL) permits have been issued, 20% of which must be used with wheelchair-accessible vehicles, with 4,478 Street Hail Livery vehicles already in use by that time.

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