Re:Europe's love affair with diesel cars has been a disaster
by tomp on Saturday October 17, 2015 @06:31PM
(#10406422)
UK's black cabs are big as well, yes. But most other cars are small. In contrast, many cars in NY seem just as big as yellow cabs. You're right, though, when I was there quite recently there were quite a few smaller, European or Asian cars like Prius or such.
Many places that historically had town cars and carriages seem to kept large cabin taxis because it was more attractive to people to ride in comfort (not having to crouch to get in for example) as well as allow you to easily pick 3 passengers with enough room that they don't have to be touching.
You also forget that more than 50% of NYC's taxi's are hybrid these days, with the Prius being one of the most popular models to be converted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_taxi