Here’s a question for Curbed types or
anybody else: where’s the best place in NYC for hailing a cab? I’m looking for
somewhere you can get a cab more or less immediately, at more or less any time
of day or night. I reckon that the corner of 14th Street and 9th Avenue is hard
to beat, but I’d be interested in hearing others’ opinions.
I don’t think such a place exists. Of course, one could say LaGuardia, but I don’t think that in the spirit of your questions.
Generally, I would say immediately opposite a gas station. Houston between B & C (just west of the Mobil), or 10th Avenue in many places probably ranks high. Whereas getting a cab at B & Houston can be tedious, I’ve never waited more than a minute mid-block.
Brooklyn, on Atlantic Avenue and Clinton. Something to do with the end of the Gowanus Expressway. But it works.
Northeast corner of Bowery and Delancey as cabs roll into Manhattan over the Williamsburg Bridge. Never fails.
I’ve never had a proble getting a cab by Gray’s Papaya on the corner or 6th & West 8th St. Although, catching a cab on the west side just past a gas station is also a good bet.
Weren’t you a livery driver yourself at one point? 😉
I live near the corner of 96th and 2nd and never have trouble. Although it may take a little longer in the morning rush, it’s really never more than a few minutes. I think it has to do with cabs coming from the garages in Queens and the gas station on the corner of 96th and First.
This is easy — Columbus Ave in the 80s and 90s. Whenever cabs drop off anyone in the Upper West Side anywhere above 79th, they immediately make a beeline for Columbus to shoot back downtown to get another fare. As the only one-way-green-wave street in the UWS, Columbus gets all the action. You can get a cab anytime you want, by the half-dozen.
Allen Street between Delancey and Stanton usually changes.
Also East Houston, north side near Avenue A, just by the Indio-Pak deli. Longtime cabby hangout and there’s always a taxi or three there.
Lafayette Street north of houston.
two places that work for me – along Church St. just north of Chambers…cabs coming into city over brooklyn bridge… and then in b-heights or cobble hill along Clinton St – its the best – really – anytime day or night – multiple cabs heading to manhattan…
I have a fuck friend up on West End and 96th and I’ve never had a problem getting a cab IMMEDIATELY after walking out of the building. I admitted to said “fuck friend” so you would understand that I leave there at all times a night. NEVER had a problem. So, I think that’s it. I have no idea why. Perhaps it’s my “fuck friend” guardian angel.
If I knew, why would I tell you?
One of the best places, at least on the lower west side of Manhattan, is Sixth Avenue between Broome and Spring Streets.
Sixth Avenue is essentially an extension of Church St., and each of them is a segment of what is probably the major northbound vehicular route on the west side of Lower Manhattan. Plus there is a Mobil(?) gas station / “mini mart” on the east side of Sixth Avenue that serves as sort of a rest stop for cab drivers.
And the cross streets, Spring St. and Broome St., each seem to get a fair number of cabs traveling west or east, respectively.
Whoops! That should have been, “And the cross streets, Spring St. and Broome St., each seem to get a fair number of cabs traveling EAST or WEST, respectively.