Wait, so the Taxi of Tomorrow will be...all of the options but the one New Yorkers wanted? Earlier this year, to much grumbling, the TLC picked Nissan to make its next generation fleet of taxis. But those won't hit the road until 2013 and many taxi fleet owners have said they don't want to be saddled with one model. So today the TLC approved Ford's "Taxi of Today," the Ford Connect, for use on our streets.
The TLC's logic is simple. “With the phase-out of the Crown Victoria, another vehicle needs to fill the gap…between now and then,” TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg says. So they've given Ford the green light since its Connect models are already in use Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia.
What really grates about this is that the TLC went out of its way to ask for the public's input in this process, offered up two lame models and one really interesting choice (from Turkish manufacturer Karsan) and then chose to reject the good one in favor of more of the same. Karsan was even offering to build their cabs in Brooklyn, while Ford's Connect are actually built in Turkey! Why did the TLC even bother to ask us for the public's input in the first place?
