While I'm encouraged to hear about the Hybrid taxi plan, I think it's important to look at Taxis in general from another angle. This one vehicle (a given cab) is making countless point to point connections for people around the city. It is one engine block, already heated up, it often can pick up a fare not far from where it dropped the last one off (intown, anyway), doesn't circle countless blocks looking for parking, etc.. There are definitely some energy advantages to using cabs over personal autos.. and let's face it, it will be a reality in any city, because there is always a demand for it.

That said, I do want to see many more pedicabs licensed in NY, and I hope that we can develop systems to use the subway-tracks for nighttime Freight delivery, to get some of the Trucking off the NYC streets, which I see as a much bigger block to traffic and to bike-lanes, where trucks park perpetually, and which do immeasurably more damage to the road surfaces than any passenger cars.