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<!--more-->Passengers Speak Out in Taxi Survey

<a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/passengers-speak-out-in-taxi-survey/?ref=nyregion">http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/passengers-speak-out-in-taxi-survey/?ref=nyregion</a>

"Passengers in New York City taxicabs like to pay by credit card. They take cabs because they are late, tired or weighted down by unwieldy bags, and they are most likely to hail a taxi once a week. Cabs should be easier to get in and out of, they say, and those backseat televisions ought to be banned entirely.

The peeves and habits of riders who frequent one of New York’s more famous modes of mass transit emerged last week with the release of a large-scale survey (pdf) by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, which quizzed riders on their experiences in the city’s iconic yellow fleet.

The revelations are slightly less titillating than an episode of, say, “Taxicab Confessions,” and no questions about backseat make-out sessions appeared on the survey form. But the results sketch out a fairly granular portrait of the urban taxi-goer, who, it turns out, is a harried, well-to-do individual who prefers environmentally friendly vehicles and would not mind being able to charge a cellphone while enjoying the ride, if that can be arranged.

It should be noted that this was not the most precise survey sample ever assembled. The city received self-selected responses from about 22,000 people, and while taxi ridership can be difficult to measure, 240 million cab rides occur each year."