Wow. That's about all I can say. Wow.

Ok, I can say more... so they're saying that if you add a partition to a car designed without one, that somebody could... just maybe... bang their head on it. And from this we learn that hybrids, as a class of vehicle, are unsafe?

Have you ever been a passenger in a taxicab where you felt completely safe? I haven't. Its the scariest form of transportation available in the US.

The Taxi Board of Trade is the private association of NYC livery owners which works to benefit the taxi companies.

They are filing that stupid lawsuit because they don't like having to spend $30,000 to acquire each hybrid taxi cab when they used to be able to buy a retired police Crown Victoria for $6000 and put it into service as a cab.

I hope they lose that suit. Considering that the Escape Hybrid has been in use as taxi cabs here in NYC since 2004, and the Escape Hybrids haven't fared any worse than the conventional cabs (Crown Vics, Siennas and Odysseys) in accidents.

The Ford Crown Victoria stretch is pretty much a dedicated taxi vehicle. I don't even know if it available outside of fleet sales. Also, the Crown Taxi is just an old Toyota Crown that they still make for taxi service. At one time it was a normal car.

Vancouver has used hybrid taxis for years, and I haven't heard of any problems.

Perhaps a quick email or call there would have been enlightening.

On the other hand, Canadian cabs don't segregate the driver from the passengers with a crash-unfriendly plexiglass-and-steel-tube barrier.

Wow!...so much material for a conspiracy theory exists here. It appears simple to me. The taxi operators are fighting a requirement to make a long term investment in a hybrid vehicle. Such investments are probably not the typical business model for taxi operators...especially small operations. Also, I would guess that some concern exists about maintaining/repairing a hybrid vehicle. I would think that assuming the taxi operators did not use an auto dealership for servicing their vehicles is not a stretch.

Two things come to mind... US Automaker's are deep in the pockets of the Taxi Commission, especially for one of those most taxi dense areas in the country.

And, if taxis are really that much at risk from a crash, maybe there's a bigger problem then the crash worthiness?

You are going to get a lot of status quo resistance anytime you go through a paradigm change--which is what cars (and really, the whole energy industry) are going through right now. ICE cars are pretty much dinosaurs, but the car industry is still loaded with them. So hybrids have to be downplayed.

Strange, Prius taxis seem to be working just fine here. I guess the dozen or so companies using them didn't get the memo.

You know, the more I think about safety and my occasional taxi rides, the commission should use conventional wisdom and ban the use of cellphones by drivers. It seems like every trip is driven by a guy talking on the cell the whole time, pausing only to collect the fare. I've even had them text while driving me around.

On a recent business trip I had to hail a cab to get from the hotel to the airport. It was a most scary ride I've had in the longest time.

The taxi was an old, beat up Crown. The seat was dirty and torn. The carpet was horribly stained. There was no A/C. I couldn't raise/lower the window myself. I tried to talk on the phone to my Sales guy but had to drop him off after a while because the wind noise was so freaking loud.

I was thinking the whole time how much better it would've been in a Prius taxi. But, I was in Cincinnatti, not that far from Detroit, so no such luck...

One of my most memorable taxi rides was from JFK airport to Brooklyn. The car launched into the air over one of the bridges on the expressway. It was one of those Crown Vics with about a billion miles on the clock. At least we didn't hit anything and I'm still alive.

Anytime I need to ride in a taxi in a major city I just get in, tell him were to go, and close my eyes.....

I would say that justlurkin, jeffreykb and efusco have correctly captured the motivation prompting the article:

1. Little interest in spending ~$25K for a new Prius when it was previously OK to buy a used police Crown Victoria with 100K miles, paint it yellow and install the partition, radio, fare meter, etc.

2. The side curtain airbags are not compatible with the installation of a partition between the front and rear of the passenger cabin. I suppose the quick fix there is to disconnect the airbags, but that will reduce the safety of the vehicle, hence the manufacturer cannot endorse such a modification.

Vancouver taxis don't have a partition, do they?

... the *ONLY* taxi ride I had was from work to the hospital (for a non life threatening accident that happened at work) and the guy... scared the living daylights outta me.

I like the Prius taxis better. At least they listen when you talk to them. There are several in chicago I've talked, and several out here I like. Some of them needed a better education on how to get better fuel economy, but they were so thankful for it!