Uber drivers will finally have a little class!
Black and livery car drivers in New York City may be hitting the books like yellow cabbies under new city rules proposed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Currently, those hacks only have to take a defensive driving course– while taxi drivers are required to pass courses where they study traffic rules, the city’s geography, and how to serve passengers.
The new rules would require the over 70,000 drivers who work for companies like Uber and Dial 7 to meet the more stringent standards that yellow cabbies meet to be on the city’s roads.
Taxi drivers currently take courses at schools like the Master Cabbie Taxi Academy in Long Island City.
Drivers there study atlases of the five boroughs, quiz themselves with geography flash cards, and memorize rates for out-of-town trips.
“It will be good for the industry, the drivers, and the passengers,” said Terry Gelber, who runs the Academy.
“It seems logical that a for-hire vehicle driver should have the same understanding of rules and regulations they work under.”
He added that relying on an electronic device like GPS takes driver’s eyes off the road, and memorizing the city’s geography makes hacks and passengers safer.
The new rules, which the TLC will vote on next year, are part of the city’s ‘Vision Zero’ plan to end traffic deaths.
Hacks will also receive training in serving passengers in wheelchairs. The city has been changing its taxi and black car fleet to make it more accessible.
Dana Lerner, an Upper West Side mom who lost her son, Cooper Stock, this year to a cab driver, said Thursday she hopes training for both taxi and black car drivers will include a road test in the city.
“Taxi cabs are weapons when they are driven by incompetent drivers,” she said at a TLC hearing.