New York, NY – Residents of one of the city’s noisiest neighborhoods are honking mad at hacks who lean on their horns – so they’re cooking up creative ways to quiet the nightly cabby cacophony.
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The Lower East Side’s Community Board 3, which has registered 6,133 noise complaints since July, the second most in the city, voted last week to ask the Taxi and Limousine Commission to consider installing a light atop taxis that would glow when a cabby beeps the horn.
This would make it easier for cops to ticket the driver for breaking the city’s noise code, which prohibits excessive horn honking.
“Right now, the police actually have to see a cabdriver honk the horn to issue a ticket, and that’s obviously hard,” said Board 3 district manager Susan Stetzer. “This would allow the police to see exactly who honked and make it easy to enforce the rules.”
The board will include the suggested tattletale light in a letter to the TLC, which is soliciting public feedback as it designs the taxi of the future.
But that’s not the only anti-honking measure the community is clamoring for.
Residents want to see cabs equipped with horns that blare as loudly inside the taxi as outside, creating a natural deterrent.
Next on the list: a meter that knocks $1 off the fare every time the horn honks.
“If the driver lost a buck every time he blew the horn, that would stop him real quick,” said Lower East Side resident Avram Fefer, who called the din on Ludlow Street “absolutely horrible.”
And if the community’s suggestions fall on deaf ears? “A very vigorous egg-throwing campaign” might be the answer, according to Fefer.
In a statement, TLC Commissioner Matthew Daus told The Post: “I appreciate the community board’s concerns and will make sure they are discussed and evaluated as a part of our ‘Taxi of Tomorrow’ project. [NYpost]
i hate taxis and their drivers more than anyone heere, but to enforce the honking law only against them is called selective enforcement and illegal. I actually thought that the roof light idea was a joke! besides they are not the bulk of the honking problem .we all are part of it, prob more than the cabs
Unreasonable for a person to go outside? Are you kidding? That’s what we have coats for.
most cab drivers dont deserve to drive. they refuse to pul to the curb, cut people off. i cant stand them
This piece doesn’t seem to distinguish between excessive and legitimate honking. Cars are required by law to have horns, and are required to use them in traffic when appropriate.
I’d also like to know, if taxis are not to honk at all when they arrive at the passenger’s door, how the passenger is to know that they’ve arrived? It’s unreasonable to expect a person to go outside and wait for a taxi that might be 10 or 20 minutes, especially in cold weather.
If every time someone honked on 13 Ave near my home the entire neighborhood would go broke.
Everyone is a honker these days.
Can we do something about the hockers as well?