Taxicabs San Francisco


    NYC crash statistics

    The statistics presented by Bruce Schaller in his report "Taxi and Livery
    Crashes in New York City, 1990-1999" have been cited as cause to get rid
    of partitions. A March 2, 2001 article in the New York Times states: "The
    most obvious explanation for the injuries is the hard plastic partition..."

    The crash statistics, however, do not support the idea that partitions have
    increased the number of injuries. Here are the figures for injury crashes
    in taxicabs from Table 1 on page 17 of Mr. Schaller's report.

    1990....3568
    1991....3608
    1992....4398
    1993....4434
    1994....4904
    1995....4398
    1996....4077
    1997....3897
    1998....3143
    1999....3041

    Passenger injuries have been declining steadily since partitions were mandated in
    1994. This is exactly the opposite of what you would expect if the installation of
    partitions had caused an increase in passenger injuries. Instead of injuries
    going up, they have gone down every year.

    The 1999 total is just 62% of the injury crash total for 1994. Despite the
    partitions, far fewer passengers are being hurt in taxi crashes than in the
    unshielded cabs of five or six years earlier.

    Equally dramatic is a reduction in the percentage of passengers suffering
    Type A injuries. The rate for rear-seat taxi passengers was 4% to 4.7%
    before partitions, but beginning in 1995 began a steady decline to 2.7%
    of passengers involved in injury crashes in 1999. Type B injuries have gone
    down similarly. See the figures presented by Mr. Schaller in Table 3 on
    page 19 of his report.

    Mr. Schaller's report is available in PDF format at:
    www.schallerconsult.com

    The experience of New York City absolutely does not support the notion that
    partitions have increased the number of passenger injuries. Indeed, NYC
    regulators have moved confidently to expand their successful safety strategy
    to the much larger fleet of liveries as well.


    Return to the Taxis-SF Driver Safety Page or the Taxi-Library Homicide Prevention Page