How to get a taxi back home to Brooklyn (Queens, etc.)

By Margot Slade | March 11, 2011 - 10:15AM

Outerborough dwellers who've been thwarted in an attempt to return home from Manhattan via yellow cab may want to pay attention to learnings of their Brooklyn neighbors.

In a Brownstoner.com discussion of Mayor Bloomberg's latest crackdown on taxi drivers who refuse passengers, most commenters insisted that they’ve never been left standing—but that’s partly because they know the drill: Get in before you state your destination and if the driver says “no,” call 311 from inside the cab. You’ll be on your way in a New York minute.

Politeness, greased with a large tip, helps. So does occasional subterfuge: “I’d mumble something like 28^th and 1^st Avenue, so they thought it was still Manhattan” instead of Astoria, Queens, then correct them during the journey, says one voice of experience.

For those intra-borough commutes, notes one, “taking a cab within Brooklyn is more expensive than taking a car service, which you can flag down on the street anyway.“ If you find "a good, responsible driver … ask for their personal card. Next time you need a ride, call them direct.”

Guerilla taxi tactics aside, some Brownstoners sympathized with the drivers and the realities of taxi economics: Drive you home to Brooklyn or the Bronx and a taxi driver may return empty (lost wages) or late for a shift change (there’s a penalty).

(Brownstoner.com)

Then came these two pieces of advice:

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