Uptowns Ydanis Rodriguez, TLC And Others Hosts Third Annual Vision Zero Safety Honor Roll

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) today hosted its third annual Vision Zero Safety Honor Roll event to spotlight the achievement of 378 of the city’s safest TLC-licensed drivers.  In recognition of the crucial safety role played by the businesses that dispatch our taxis, For-Hire Vehicles (FHV), the event also served to fete a select group of outstanding, Vision Zero-committed taxi fleets and FHV bases with superior safety records.  The TLC will also be honoring drivers who have distinguished themselves in the provision of outstanding service to persons with disabilities.

2016 Honor Roll: By The Numbers

TLC Safety Honor Roll drivers have had no crashes whatsoever involving fatality or injury, no traffic violations, and no violations of TLC safety-related rules for four or more years as TLC-licensed drivers.

Our 2016 Honor Roll Safety Honorees completed 1.87 million trips in 2015. Assuming an average trip distance of three miles, they carried passengers a total of over 5.6 million miles in 2015 – the equivalent of about 23.5 trips to the moon or 225 trips around the world.

2016 Accessibility Leaders

Twenty drivers were honored for their superior service in the TLC’s Accessible Dispatch Program, which allows passengers with disabilities to have a wheelchair- accessible taxi dispatched to them in Manhattan for destinations anywhere in NYC either by contacting 311, or via any of five other contact options.

• These drivers conducted an average of 14 trips per week in 2016 and had no major violations or crashes within the past year.

• From January to the end of July of 2016, these 20 drivers conducted 3,264 accessible trips.

Joining TLC Commissioner and Chair Meera Joshi in the event, held at the Borough of Manhattan Community College’s TriBeCa Performing Arts Center, were TLC government partners that included  NYPD Chief of Transportation Thomas Chan, City Council Transportation Committee Chair Ydanis Rodriguez, City Council Public Safety Committee Chair Vanessa Gibson and City Council Member Daniel Dromm.  We were privileged to open and close the event with spiritual guidance from TLC Chaplains Imam Izak-EL Mu’eed Pasha and Archbishop David I. Hartman, who also offered our National Anthem.

In February 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the Vision Zero Action Plan, a roadmap of initiatives designed to move the city closer to the important goal of zero traffic fatalities by the year 2024.  As one of three lead agencies – along with the NYPD and Department of Transportation — charged with the achievement of this realistic goal, the TLC has implemented numerous safety-focused initiatives.  One major initiative has been the agency’s commitment to recognize annually the safest TLC-licensed drivers on the road, as well as the businesses that inspired and supported their emphasis on safety, by creating a Vision Zero Safety Honor Roll.

The 378 professionals honored today represent a truly elite group.  In choosing its honorees, the TLC reviewed the records of all of all its more than 140,000 driver licensees, and identified 378 drivers who have, over four or more years, not had a single crash involving injury, a single traffic violation, or a single violation of the TLC’s safety-related rules. 

“By its very nature, the business of moving over a million people in taxicabs and for-hire vehicles each day lends itself to the philosophy ‘time is money,’” said Commissioner Joshi.  “As regulators, it is an important part of our job to see that our licensees temper that truism with another one – safety first.

I am also grateful today to the fleet and base operators who share our safety goals, because their support is absolutely essential to our success.  We are also giving well-deserved thanks to a group of outstanding providers of accessible transportation, whose hard work and dedication have made a true difference in people‘s lives.”

Visitors may learn more about the Vision Zero Driver Safety Honor Roll at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/industry/tlc_safety_honor_roll.shtml

Photo credit: Father and longtime driver Eliot Kugelman and son Howard Kugelman, who has been on the TLC’s Vision Zero Honor Roll for three years, are honored with a Legacy Award during the recognition ceremony today.