NYC cabbies risk fines for refusing rides

Taxi drivers who refuse to take customers anywhere they want to go in the city and surrounding areas like Nassau County risk getting hit with higher fines under legislation proposed Wednesday by the Bloomberg administration.

Both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bronx Councilman James Vacca announced plans to increase penalties during a City Hall news conference where officials played an undercover video showing two cabdrivers refusing to take investigators to locations in Brooklyn and Queens.

Both drivers received summonses and the one who refused the Queens trip could face a license revocation due to previous infractions, officials said.

"It doesn't matter which borough you are coming from or which borough you are going to," said Bloomberg. "If you want to hail a cab, drivers are required by law to take you to any destination in the city. Period. End of story."

Officials with the Taxi and Limousine Commission said local law requires medallion cabdrivers to take passengers to any destination in the five boroughs, or to Nassau and Westchester counties, as well as Newark Airport. Those rules are displayed inside cabs.

Vacca, who heads the council transportation committee, plans to introduce the bill later this month. The proposal would raise fines for a first offense to $500 from the current $200 to $350 and to $750 from the current $350 to $500 for a second offense within two years of the first. A third offense would carry a mandatory commission license revocation as the law currently provides. A second offense would also continue to carry a possible 30-day suspension.

"Too many passengers seeking to go outside Manhattan are being told to take a hike, when it is the cabbies who flout the law who should take a hike," said Vacca in a prepared statement.

But Fernando Mateo, head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, said he would fight the proposed hike in fines and believes drivers should have the ability to refuse some passengers.

"There are certain instances where drivers should have the right to refuse a ride -- a drunken passenger, a disorderly passenger and someone they feel is a threat to their life," said Mateo.