By Leslie Albrecht and Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producers
MANHATTAN — The city's taxi-share program shows signs of taking off at its new Port Authority Bus Terminal pick up spot, but the program's uptown locations are still stuck in the slow lane.
Commuters outside the Port Authority gave the thumbs-up to sharing a cab days after the new location opened last week for the service that gives riders a discounted fare if they share a taxi with at least one other passenger.
"It's a really great program," said Hoboken commuter Andrea Albicocco, 27, who's shared taxis recently to get to her office at West 48th Street and Sixth Avenue. "It was a nice experience. I shared with the most pleasant people."
The taxi-share stop at the bus terminal is marked by prominent signs next to the regular taxi line, and a dispatcher hands out cards explaining the program to both passengers and cabbies. Dispatcher Luis Fortunato said at least 10 groups of passengers shared rides between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Friday morning.
Shared cabs from Port Authority are $3 per passenger and run as far as West 59th Street and Sixth Avenue. At just 75 cents more than subway fare, the $3 trip is a cheap way to get out of the summer heat, Albicocco said.
Commuter DiAnne Calabrisotto, 44, of New Jersey, said she's used the shared cab service regularly since the M27 bus was discontinued on June 30. She takes the shared cab to her office at 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue. It's cheap, and she likes the social aspect of sharing a cab with strangers.
"You end up having conversations with people and sharing different experiences," Calabrisotto said. "You learn things about people."
While the group ride program is catching on in Midtown, the uptown locations are struggling.
Not a single passenger lined up to share a cab between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. at the Columbus Avenue and West 73rd Street stop on Thursday. Riders pay $4 a piece to travel from Columbus and 73rd to stops on Park Avenue from 72nd to 42nd Street.
Ditto on the Upper East Side, where no one was seen taking advantage of the program on Thursday or Friday during the morning rush at the East 72nd Street and Third Avenue location and at the York Avenue stand between East 70th and East 71st streets.
"The Port Authority stand is sort of a natural commuter stand as opposed to the others which have a different kind of constituency," said Taxi and Limousine Commissiuon Spokesman Allan Fromberg.
Cabbie Jaswinder Singh, 34, said he'd never seen riders waiting at any of the shared taxi stops uptown.
"People like privacy," Singh said. "And no one has time in New York City to wait for someone to share a ride."
Launched in March, the taxi-share program got off to a slow start. The TLC used balloons and coffee and muffins to entice riders to share cabs.
Despite mixed results, the TLC plans to push forward with the program while tweaking it for better results. The TLC plans to evaluate all of the stands currently in operation within the next month, Fromberg said.
"It's just a matter of finding the right formula to making it work," Fromberg said, "and making sure it's really serving the people's needs in a way that is the most convenient."
