Hail a hybrid.
There are 13,000 taxis in New York City. And in five years, they'll all be hybrids. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg made that announcement this morning live on the Today show on NBC.
The city's been testing 400 hybrids from a variety of manufacturers over the course of the past 18 months. The first phase of the hybrid switch is scheduled to completed by October of 2008, when a thousand hybrid cabs will replace the current standard, the 14-miles-per-gallon Ford Crown Victoria, on the city's streets. Twenty percent of current cabs will be replaced with hybrids every year after that until the conversion is complete by 2012.
The new taxis are one part of a Bloomberg plan aimed at cutting the city's carbon output. Also proposed but still taking shape: a "congestion pricing" plan similar to London's that would restrict traffeic south of 86th street from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays.
Kalvin Goodwin
Hi, saw you guys filming in Quesnel on the way to an appointment today, hope you enjoyed the scenery, take care.
Dave Dowling
Those billions of tax surpluses could very easy go towards a n even better plan here in Canada.
crystal williams
hello i would just like to say i have turnt green at the age of 12 and i want the world to be forever safe goodluck!
Sherri
I love that many corporations, cities and states are taking steps like this despite the lack of federal action. Looks like the federal government is increasingly out of touch with what people want. But city mayors are closer to the voices of the citizens. Nice job New York!
PS - the david suzuki website needs a community message board so we can all discuss these types of issues!