As of last Friday, taxi drivers in New York City no longer have to pass an English proficiency exam to get behind the wheel. Apparently City Council thought that requiring cabbies to speak English was discriminatory against immigrants looking for employment. Sure, because communicating with passengers is not really a big part of the job. Per the New York Times, only 4% of taxi drivers in NYC today are actually born in the U.S., down from 62% in 1980.
For decades, most taxi drivers have been born outside the United States. Now, only 4 percent are born here, according to the taxi commission, and that figure has been dropping, from about 62 percent in 1980 and 36 percent in 1990. Drivers across the industry come from about 167 countries, with among the largest share of taxi drivers coming from Bangladesh (24 percent) and Pakistan (10 percent).
City officials pointed to Uber policies, which don’t require proficiency in English, as a key reason for supporting the bill. We would kindly remind the Council that, irrespective of one’s political view on this topic, there is little doubt that Uber is “slightly ahead” of the yellow cab companies on the technology front. With Uber, passengers able to order a ride and program a destination right from their smartphone without every having to interact with the driver. That’s not really the case with Yellow Cab drivers. But again we should stop trying to let facts get in the way of a good narrative.
Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who sponsored the bill and is himself a former livery driver, said the legislation was intended to level the playing field so yellowtaxi and Uber drivers faced the same licensing requirements. Thousands of people, he said, now drive for companies like Uber and Lyft, another app-based service.
“They don’t have any language requirement, and no one has complained that they can’t communicate with them,” Mr. Rodriguez, a Democrat who represents northern Manhattan, said.
Despite support from City Council, the New York Times pointed out that even some taxi drivers were confused by the new law:
“You have to communicate with the customer,” Pasang Sherpa, 40, said as the students reviewed methods of finding a cross street. “You’re not working in a kitchen. You’re driving a cab? you’re dealing with the public.”
“If someone knows a little English, it’s not difficult,” Tainur Rahman, 38, of the Bronx, said one evening this week as he ended his shift and handed his cab off to another driver, on Lexington Avenue.
Mr. Rahman, who has been driving a taxi for five years, said he was disappointed that the city was ending the test, because he thought drivers should be able to show they understand some basic English.
Still others said they would actually prefer their taxi drivers not be able to speak English as it would make for a “quieter trip”:
Mia Borthwick, 18, a student who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said she did not want drivers to start a conversation with her.
“Uber is bad about that. They always talk to you. I don’t think that’s a requirement of the job. That might actually be better for the passenger,” she said of the new rules.
Well, we certainly wouldn’t want any taxi drivers to inadvertently commits any acts of “micro-aggression” against young Millennials like Mia.
via http://ift.tt/2bhjprI Tyler Durden