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In America, Taxi TV Interrogates <em>You</em>
By
Garth Johnston
Published Oct 26, 2011
Modified Oct 26, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Oct 26, 2011
Modified Oct 26, 2011
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New Yorkers may not like those Taxi TVs in the back of every cab, but the backseat boob tubes are here to stay—so at least the TLC is finally going to make some use out of them? Yesterday the Taxi and Limousine Commission began adding mini-surveys to the mix of GPS, local and news and annoying videos that greet fares when they enter one of the city's 13,237 cabs. Is your driver talking on his cellphone? Are you riding a cab for business or pleasure? How much money do you make? Is this TV broken and impossible to turn off? The TLC wants to know!
Each survey (there are eight as of now) is designed to be short (just three or four questions) so you'll always have time to take it, if you want, and the TLC says that it won't be penalizing drivers who snitched on from the backseat. It just wants to know how it can better itself, y'know? "In 2011, any business tries to learn as much as it can about its customers in order to serve them better," TLC Commissioner David Yassky said. "That's what we're doing here."
The new surveys will get used for some decisions though. One of the things included in the first round is a question about what riders think of taxi lights. No word on if the survey's will be used to help pick the next Taxi TV "Star"...
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