15 city council members (including the ubiquitous John Liu) have thrown their support behind a temporary $1 taxi surcharge. But the Taxi and Limousine Commission and the mayor continue to reject the proposal, with Bloomberg pointing to hybrid taxis as the best solution to skyrocketing gas prices. At a rally yesterday, taxi driver Parvinder Singh told NY1: "This gas price is just killing us – all the drivers and all the 5 percent we're paying......

In 2004 – the year taxi fares increased 26%, President Bush got re-elected, and Janet Jackson’s nip slipped – the average price of gas in the city was $1.80 a gallon. It now costs around $4.45 a gallon, with no signs of diminishing, and there is increased clamor from cabbies for the city to institute a surcharge of $1 per ride. But Taxi and Limousine Commission chairman Matthew Daus yesterday declared that "under no circumstance" would the TLC implement a surcharge. ...

The NY Post checks in on the greening of New York's yellow cabs. By October 1st around 2,500 of the 13,227 will need to be hybrid, but word is that there's a shortage of the vehicles -- the president of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade said "there will not be enough to sustain this mandate." While he has asked the city to extend the deadline due to the "availability crisis," cabbies who have made......

Photograph of a Ford Escape taxi by S.D. on Flickr With the city's initiative to help green the taxi fleet six months old, the NY Times spoke to the drivers of hybrid cabs to the get the skinny on how well it's been working out. Currently, only 7.8% of the 13,000 city taxis are hybrids. Most are Ford Escapes, and one owner of his Escape cab, Gerard Cherizol, said he pays only $20/day on......

A proposal by City Council Member Hiram Monserrate would give hybrid car drivers free parking at meters for a year after their initial purchase. If the legislation passes, drivers with receipts for hybrid cars could apply for the permits, which the Queens councilman says would cost the city little in lost revenue, because the taxes from new car sales would make up for the quarters lost at parking meters. But Council Member John Liu, chairman......

The Taxi and Limousine Commission has made it official: Cabs purchased after October 1, 2008 must get at least 25 miles per gallon. Then, after fall of 2009, newly purchased cabs must get at least 30 miles per gallon. As the AP puts it, this means "taxi fleet owners, who must replace their cabs every three to five years, will probably be forced to buy fuel-efficient hybrids, which run partly on electricity." The Taxicab Board......