New York City’s fleet of yellow taxi cabs will run on hybrid fuel by 2012 if City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets his way.
Bloomberg announced the plan to convert New York’s 13,000 taxis yesterday, saying that the green switch will be phased in from next year. The Mayor added that the ambitious plan will reduce emissions from taxis by 50% over the next decade.
“It will be the largest, cleanest fleet of taxis anywhere on the planet,” said Bloomberg. “And because taxis are so heavily used, the new standard will have the equivalent effect of removing 30,000 individually-owned gas-powered vehicles from our streets.”
Hybrids, which are powered by petrol and electricity thus emitting less in the way of greenhouse gasses than conventional vehicles, currently make up only 375 of the city’s fleet, according to New York Associated Press figures.
But the move is only part of Bloomberg’s plans to make New York a greener city. Earlier this year, the Mayor announced plans to reduce the city’s CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030.
Will the plans be successful? It’s up to you, New York, New York!
The studies already seem to indicate that hybrids as taxes are already successful. Taxis do about 70k miles per year (as opposed to the 15-18k for a personal vehicle). 70k is about the break-even point on hybrids, so the next few years with the car are all cost savings. There are real-world Ford Escape hybrids and Priuses uses as taxis that have logged over 200k miles without incident (or battery problems).
Mike
Comment by Mike@HCVN — May 23, 2007 @ 5:21 pm
Baby steps…
Comment by Melissa — June 5, 2007 @ 1:58 am