Although the languid pace of New Year's Day made cabs relatively easy to find in Manhattan yesterday, many people said they thought that the expansion of the fleet was long overdue.
These goals could be achieved by making cab drivers auxiliary public safety officers.
The proposals are intended to make it easier to find a cab at peak times and to make cab rides cheaper by creating discounts and flat fares.
A commission system, in which the cab company or private cab owner splits the day's take with the driver, would also tend to make cab companies far more picky about whom they hire.
Mr. Schaller said he thought the cab shortage had become so pronounced that the city "really needs to start looking at how to make cab service more readily available".
"I can't say I've made intimate friends because of the hat, but it makes cab drivers smile," Johnson, who lives in Indiana, told VICE.
Industry representatives cite three main obstacles to making cabs wheelchair-accessible: the cost of conversion, the durability of the cabs and high insurance premiums.
The pressure is growing to find more regulated drivers -- which, by implication, means lowering standards -- and to make cabs more affordable to buy.
"New York is grossly behind," said Diane McGrath-McKechnie, a former chairwoman of the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission who has become a proponent of making cabs wheelchair-accessible since leaving office several years ago.
Meanwhile, services like Uber, Hailo, GetTaxi and Kabbee are making cab-ordering simpler and more convenient, also making car ownership less compelling.
While this database of objects is obviously fairly limited, it does allow for some clever tricks including making taxi cabs in photos flip around to display their undercarriage and then zoom off into space.
