See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Vanessa Ogle
Brooklyn Daily
You can never find a taxi when you want one, but in Sheepshead Bay, locals are finding cabs where they don’t want them.
The green outer-borough taxis illegally idling and parking in the no-standing zones outside the Sheepshead Bay Road train station are causing chaos for locals, who say the congestion is crowding the bus stop and preventing drivers picking up passengers from the train from pulling over out of the traffic lanes.
One local leader said the cabs have already received plenty of warnings to move, and the next step should be a ticket crackdown.
“The solution is not to push them away — it is to walk there with a ticket book,” said Theresa Scavo, the chairwoman of Community Board 15. “If they’re sitting there, they get a ticket.”
The Taxi and Limousine Commission said there are specified areas for the cabs to wait for fares, such as taxi stands and vehicle-for-hire stands, and the drivers should not be waiting where they are on Sheepshead Bay Road.
“That is obviously against the rules,” said Allan Fromberg, a spokesman for the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D–Sheepshead Bay) said he has reached out to the Taxi and Limousine Commission and wants them to ticket the drivers, instead of expecting police officer to handle it.
“The solution is what we asked the TLC to do — to give out summonses to those cabs that are illegally standing there,” said Cymbrowitz. “You have everybody just waiting there and the TLC has not been very responsive.”
Fromberg said the Taxi and Limousine Commission will assess the situation soon.
In the meantime Scavo worries that the congestion will cause more than an inconvenience.
“It is an accident waiting to happen,” she said.