Casual Cabsharing in New York

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Starting this Friday, taxis in New York will start offering "group rides." Between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. part of the fleet will run from a predetermined pick-up location to a predetermined drop-off spot. If you're traveling along one of these routes you can hop in with strangers and pay a low, flat fare.The city's Taxi and Limousine Commission chief Matt Daus explains the rationale:

"The concept really boils down to: Take less money out of passengers' pockets, put more money in drivers' pockets, put less pollution in the air and give passengers more transportation options."

It's like carsharing meets casual carpool. Sounds like a no-brainer to me. Think of all that spare taxi capacity that we've been wasting. There are more details up at the Taxi Commission website.Via PSFK and Inhabitat.