Two City Coun🅷cil members are proposing panic buttons for tax🦩icabs — but critics, including the TLC, say the plan is a bad idea.
Laurie Cumbo and Anꦍdy King have bills that would, respectively, calls for panic buttons ♈in the back seats and front seats of cabs — one to protect passengers and one to protect drivers.
But critics say they are not necessary.
“They were tested in Washington, DC, and they overwhelmed the 911 system,” said Christopher Lynn, an advisℱer to Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. “And they found that the best way to keep drivers safeꦅ is to keep the doors and partitions locked.”
Some drivers argued that asking them to install new devices would be too big an expense for those who are already strugglin💜g to stay financi🦂ally afloat.
“App-bꦑased emergency buttons al🗹ready exist in the largest apps and we believe they offer the best solution for the safety of riders and drivers alike. Using the technology already built into the app, app-based buttons give users their exact location to provide to 911 dispatchers and apps are already piloting technology to allow users to automatically transmit that location to 911 dispatchers with the press of the button,” Lynn said.
“The alternative, to build similar capabilities into physical buttons in the vehicle accessible to both drivers and riders, would be another unaffordable expense to drivers, challenging to install, 𝓡subject to breakdown and difficult to enforce.”