In New York City, taxicabs come in two varieties: yellow and green; they are widely recognizable symbols of the city. Taxis painted 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. , there were 51,398 individuals licensed to drive medallion taxicabs. There were 13,605 taxicab medallion licenses in existence. , 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 ridesharing companies.
The medallion system was created in 1937 as a government imposed limitation on the supply of taxicabs, requiring that a medallion be purchased for the right to operate a taxi. Thereafter, New York did not sell any medallions until 1996, when it auctioned slightly more than 2,000. The lack of new medallions resulted in such a shortage that by 2014 they were selling for more than $1 million each, with about 14,000 medallions in existence. Since then, the increase in rideshare vehicles, which numbered about 63,000 in 2015 and 100,000 by August 2018, has drastically reduced the market price of medallions.
, there are around 7,990 hybrid taxi vehicles, representing almost 59% of the taxis in service, as of 2023, there are over 12,000 taxis in New York City, 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. , 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.
Industry
All types of taxis are licensed by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), which oversees for-hire vehicles, taxis, commuter vans, and paratransit vehicles. The iconic taxicabs come in two colors. The apple green taxis, which are called street hail livery vehicles or "boro taxis," operate only outside the Manhattan central business district, excluding John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. These taxis started operating in August 2013, with 18,000 licenses being added in three waves of 6,000; the first group of 6,000 licenses was added in 2014. The yellow "medallion" taxicabs can pick up anywhere in the city, and numbered 13,437 licenses in 2014.
The TLC oversees over 100,000 for-hire vehicles, including "black cars"; "livery cars"; commuter "dollar vans"; luxury limousines; and paratransit vehicles. Black cars cannot be hailed on the street, instead they must be dispatched by a parent business. These businesses formerly used luxury cars such as a Lincoln Town Car due to their almost-exclusively business clientele, and drivers ordinarily get less than 10% of their income in cash. There were around 500 base stations for black cars, comprising a total fleet of 25,000 vehicles, as of the 2014 TLC Factbook. Livery cars are similar to black cars, but are used by a greater range of people. There were 80 livery bases and 10,000 livery vehicles in 2014. Commuter vans carry more people, usually between 9 and 20 passengers per trip. Commuter van licenses were held by 50 entities, which collectively owned 500 vehicles, in 2014. Luxury limousine providers and private paratransit companies numbered 200 each in 2014, collectively chartering 7,000 luxury limousine vehicles and 2,000 paratransit vehicles. In 2015, there were 14,000 for-hire vehicles associated with one or more of four ride-sharing companies of the time: Juno, Lyft, Uber, and Via. By 2018, over 80,000 such vehicles were being driven for "ride-share".