Catching a taxicab in New York City is notoriously difficult, and whether you are a tourist trying to find your way around or a local trying to get home from work, you can end up stuck waiting for as long as an hour. The next time you are in the big city and facing this issue, there a couple things you can do to cut down on the time it takes to successfully find a cab and get to where you are going.
When figuring out the best place to catch a taxi, the first thing to do is to get on the side of the street that has traffic going in the direction you want to go. This will make it easier and faster for any cab you see to pick you up. You will generally want to wait on a street corner, rather than the side of a single street. Street corners have twice as many cars driving by so you are much more likely to see a taxi passing at any one time. In general, more heavily trafficked corners will have more cabs around. Where the traffic is concentrated is always changing, depending on the time and day of the week, but you can usually decrease your wait time by walking a few blocks to a more major street. Try looking at a map of your part of the city and moving to the biggest street that you are close to.
If you have a smartphone, there is an even more sophisticated way to find the best place to catch a taxi. The new free app called CabSense uses a huge database with information about past cab trips that was collected by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission to analyze traffic patterns and locate the best nearby corner to hail a cab. The app takes the day of the week and the time of day into account in addition to the user’s location, and displays a rating of one through five stars for each of the best nearby corners. If you download and use this app you should have no more trouble figuring out where to go to hail a taxi, but if you don’t feel like waiting at all then you should call ahead to arrange a pick-up. You can use TalkLocal to find taxi services in your area. All you need to do is enter your name, contact info, and a description of your needs and you will be automatically connected to a company that wants your business.
