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Police: Never get in an unmarked livery car you haven't called

By adamg on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 1:21pm

Boston Police today issued tips on how to identify a licensed Boston cab (they all have medallions on the right side of the trunk, along with other stickers on windows and inside) but stopped short of saying don't use services like Uber or Hailo:

Do not get into unmarked taxi or livery cars.

Use only licensed cabs or clearly identifiable livery service vehicles that are called to your location.

Also, police say, make note of the cab's medallion or license number and once inside, call a friend or someone and "let them know what cab you’re in where you’ve asked driver to take you."

The tips come in the wake of sexual attacks on two women by drivers of what police have said are unlicensed taxis, one who picked up a woman along Northern Avenue in South Boston on Aug. 6, the other who picked up a woman early Sunday in Allston.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
Crime
Free tagging: 
Taxis


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Comments

By anon on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 1:40pm.

Didn't we all learn not to get into strangers cars back in first or second grade?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbOPBgxcw1s

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By anon on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 2:25pm.

I got into an unmarked livery car once at North Station. It was some guy paying another guy to drive a livery car from another dude who was renting from the original dude who was driving for a limo company. I asked him like 10 questions to make sure I was comfortable he wasn't going to rip me off or rob me or was a psycho or whatever. The guy was just driving around picking people up and asking how much they wanted to pay. He paid the guy he was "borrowing from" and kept the leftover cash. I got a sweet deal and it was cheaper than a licensed taxi or car. I'd do it again if I could. If I were female, however, I'd never do this alone.

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By johnmcboston on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 2:59pm.

Well, at South Bay all these is are these gypsy non-licensed cabs. Someone complained once and I believe the response was the police knew about it...

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By anon on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 3:04pm.

For some reason Cabs will not pick up fares in South Bay and for people who don't drive it sometime is the only option.

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By cybah on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 3:19pm.

They only care when it really matters.. not.

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By rb on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 3:22pm.

I wonder how BPD will address this issue beyond sending out press releases. NY seizes and auctions unlicensed livery cabs through the TLC's enforcement division.

Isn't this the sort of thing the Hackney Unit should be doing? Or do they just exist to cash checks and type up consumer complaints on their invisible typewriters?

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By anon² on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 5:50pm.

taking kickbacks from the medallion holders.

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By kvn on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 5:56pm.

Here's a wild NY cab story for you,

A cabbie feuding with a bike messenger stepped on the gas and jumped the curb outside Rockefeller Center this morning, severing at least one foot of a beautiful female British tourist as horrified witnesses — including TV’s “Dr. Oz” — rushed to help, officials and witnesses said.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/cab_jumps_curb_...

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By Matthew on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 6:25pm.

(bit off topic, excuse my digression)

http://www.streetsblog.org/2013/08/20/update-cabbi...

“We were crossing right in the middle of the crosswalk — we had the crossing signal — and as we were crossing with other pedestrians, the cab started to pull into the crosswalk,” said Jeffrey Hayes, of Massachusetts, to Fox News. “[There] was a man riding along this way on his bicycle with a backpack and he got picked up by the cabbie and was thrown up on the hood and up on his windshield. The cab really accelerated at a great speed. We couldn’t believe it. It smashed into the barrier here. There was a woman — maybe a few women — that were standing there. It just nailed her.”

Law-enforcement sources said the cabbie who hit her, Mohammed Himon, was likely to be slapped with multiple summonses for the crash but not criminally charged.

More NYPD fail as usual. They actually manage to make BPD look wonderful in comparison.

I suppose the summonses are a step forward.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/04/irvin-gitlit...

(if you have some time and really want to see how ridiculously terrible NYPD is, just search for "pedestrian" on NY streetsblog)

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By BostonUrbEx on Wed, 08/21/2013 - 8:48am.

Law-enforcement sources said the cabbie who hit her, Mohammed Himon, was likely to be slapped with multiple summonses for the crash but not criminally charged.

What a fucking disgrace.

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By Lunchbox on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 5:44pm.

Eliminate the cap on medallions, and you'll drive down the number of unlicensed gypsy cabs, while increasing the number of drivers who have been vetted and are traceable.

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By anon² on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 5:54pm.

rent seeking is keeping prices artificially high and supply low. That's the perfect environment to temp black market activities, such as these gypsy cabs.

We need to get rid of the medallion system and just enforce strict safety regulations like we do with say food service and prep. We also need to renationalized the system to include the boston metropolitan area, not just boston proper.

It's not like traffic will be any worse with more cabs on the street. If we can regionalize the system, in all likelihood it would reduce the need to take a car.

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By rb on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 6:17pm.

They're just driving around empty half the time, thanks to our parochial, pre-automotive, municipality-based street hail laws. "It's the 90s.....the 1890s!"

I consider this problem Boston's unacknowledged traffic and environmental disaster.

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By anon on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 7:00pm.

"Also, police say, make note of the cab's medallion or license number and once inside, call a friend or someone and "let them know what cab you’re in where you’ve asked driver to take you."

That's it?

No helmet?

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By dirtywater77 on Wed, 08/21/2013 - 1:04pm.

No word whether or not it was an official Boston "hackney carriage," but some guy who took a cab from Boston to Cambridge a few days ago apparently got bitten in the face by the driver during a dispute over the credit card machine.

And it's not the first time in recent years that a cabbie has bitten someone in the face in Cambridge.

Helmets? No. Hockey facemasks? Definitely recommended.

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