"Taxi, Taxi!" ... Here Come The Hybrids

I spent last weekend on a getaway... in New York City. Now I know most people escape from New York, but two nights in a hotel near Central Park worked for my wife and I. Aside from whatever happened in the suite there, we walked a lot. New York is the most car-free city in the U.S., and only half its residents own vehicles.

The park was only two blocks away, and we strolled through the kind of scene out-of-towners would never believe was New York: baseball diamonds, forests lakes. There are turkeys and coyotes in that part of Manhattan.

But despite these green shoots, a million cars come into Manhattan every day, and the city has lousy air quality. It's heartening, given this, that under Mayor Michael Bloomberg the city is abandoning its 13,000-strong conventional taxi fleet, 90 percent of which consists of worn-out, smoke belching Ford Crown Victorias (which get a mere 12 miles per gallon) and switching to, yes, hybrid cars. The plan is for a five-year phase-in, with a fully hybrid fleet by 2012.

The hybrid Ford Escape decked out in Checker yellow.

By the end of 2008, new taxis will have to get 25 mpg. By 2009, 30 mpg -- and only hybrids are likely to make the numbers. More than 250 permits for hybrid taxis have been issued, and the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape are hitting the road in yellow paint (as are seven other hybrids).

New York is not the first to make this move. San Francisco first got hybrid taxis in February 2005, and 30 are on the road -- many passing the 100,000-mile mark. So far, they're doing just fine, say cab owners and drivers. Other cities, including Las Vegas and Chicago, are likely to go the same route. Hybrids save between $20 and $30 per shift in fuel costs, so it's not surprising they're popular.

The all-hybrid taxi fleet is an idea whose time has come, cough, cough. We loved New York for our getaway, but by the time we caught the train out of there, my wife was having trouble breathing.