Outer boroughs can hail win on livery cabs

Seven out of eight New York City residents live in the outer boroughs or upper Manhattan, yet it's almost impossible for them to get a cab on the street -- at least without turning the cabbie into an outlaw. That's because only yellow taxis can legally pick up street hails, and they rarely go so far afield.

That's about to change, thanks to a good compromise hammered out by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo among contentious players in the yellow cab industry, livery cab owners and drivers, and advocates for the disabled.

The result? Starting in the new year, up to 6,000 livery cabs will be licensed to pick up street hails outside the area of Manhattan below 96th Street. Another 6,000 will be licensed in each of the next two years -- too slowly for our taste, but better late than never.

Many of the newly licensed cabs must be handicapped accessible, as will the 2,000 new yellow taxis authorized by the compromise (there are 13,000-plus on the streets now). Sale of medallions, or licenses, for these could bring in $2 billion for the city, which will use up to $54 million to subsidize retrofitting for the disabled. But the city can't sell 1,600 of the medallions until it develops a state-approved plan for making the entire yellow fleet accessible.

The newly licensed liveries, meanwhile, will have meters running at the same rates as yellow cabs, which will lift much of the livery business out of the underground economy. All in all, it's a deal worth hailing.