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      COMMISSIONER'S LETTER


By New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission
Chairwoman & Cheif Executive Officer
Meera Joshi

Greetings, everyone, I hope you are all enjoying a cooler late summer/early fall! As always, it is my pleasure to share with you some of the latest developments at the TLC.


Safety Honor Roll

We hope you will join us this month in celebrating the work of TLC licensed drivers with exemplary safety records, as well as the drivers and businesses who provide exceptional service to our city's many wheelchair users.

The TLC will hold its third annual Safety Honor Roll ceremony on September 14. The ceremony will honor drivers who have no traffic violation or safety related TLC rule convictions on their records, and have not been in any crashes with injuries for four years or longer.

These hard working drivers have kept their passengers safe, themselves, and those with whom they share the street while logging many millions of miles. We are proud to
recognize this amazing achievement, and greatly appreciate their support in making the City's streets safer for all of us.


Open Data

We made public last month almost 64 million For-Hire Vehicle (FHV) trip record which joined a wealth of yellow medallion and green taxi records already available to the public online. The records are important for industry accountability, and allow us to protect consumers.

The data helps us hold licensees accountable to rules and regulations, and the public can now easily access it without needing a formal Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request. The records will be a treasure trove to thousands of academics, data specialists, civic groups, writers, and others who have used taxi data to gain a unique perspective on how our city moves.


Accessibility

There is some good news about our progress in becoming more accessible to people with disabilities At the end of July, there were 909 wheelchair-accessible medallion taxis, up from 237 in 2013. Almost 300 of these cabs went into service in the first six months of 2016 alone!

Our accessible dispatch program, where passengers can request a wheelchair-accessible taxi through a phone call, text, app, or website, is also hitting new milestones. Since its first full year in 2013, the program has more than doubled its number of monthly trips. In June, the program had 6,042 requests, and 6,102 in May.

The advent of accessible dispatch citywide is also advancing. Currently, the service takes passengers to any destination citywide with trips beginning in Manhattan. We expect full citywide service to begin early in calendar year 2017 with trips beginning anywhere, as well as more and more wheelchair-accessible cabs to keep hitting the road.


Study Guide

When drivers apply for a TLC license, they will soon be able to access a free comprehensive study guide in four languages from the TLC to prepare for the exam. Available in English, Spanish, Bengali, and Urdu, the free guide is a major resource for drivers on TLC rules and geography. This includes points of interest and the directions of streets and avenues, as well as the location of transit hubs, major river crossings, and Vision Zero, the City's plan to end traffic fatalities.

The guide assists drivers in reviewing the speed limit, red light turns, awareness of bike lanes, and the top reasons why licensees get critical driver points, such as moving violations and electronic device usage. We are confident it will assist applicants in becoming more professional and knowledgeable drivers who will make our City's streets better with their presence.


Universal license

We will vote this month on the universal TLC driver's license rule. We very much appreciated the industry's helpful feedback during a July hearing on the proposed update. The universal license will give drivers the flexibility to move seamlessly between the sectors of the industries that we regulate, whether they want to drive yellow, green, or black. We are excited that this change will optimize drivers' earning potential, as well as open new channels for them to find the work environment they find to be most rewarding.


Loss of our colleague

We were greatly saddened recently to experience the loss of our colleague Glenell Sullivan last month. Glenell joined the TLC in June last year as a case manager for our prosecution division, and worked previously at the 311 Call Center starting in 2009. Glenell had an outgoing, friendly spirit, greeting everyone with a smile or pleasant hello. She was recently promoted to Supervisor of Case Examiners, and we will greatly miss her exemplary work and dedication. Our thoughts are with her family and her many friends and admirers. She will be truly missed.


Driver application

We learned recently that the new driver application status look-up on our website is the most popular New York City government dataset. We are gratified that it has been a helpful tool for thousands of applicants. If you or someone you know has applied for a TLC driver's license, you can check its status here:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/industry/new_driver_app_lookup.shtml.

We hope innovations like these will make the licensing process more convenient for our applicants!

Until next time, be safe and drive like your family lives here!

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