Yellow Cabs in Accordion City [Updated]

Accordion City

serves as a location for movie shoots so often that we actually have

fleets of New York City vehicles such as NYPD cars, U.S. Postal Service

trucks and Yellow Cabs. They’re typically stored in lots just off King

Street East (there’s one under the bridge at King and Sumach), but a couple of weeks ago, almost a dozen cabs were parked not far from my house on Phoebe Street.

I’ve always wondered how current the cab fare markings on the doors to

these movie cabs are. Any New Yorkers out there: are the prices shown

below current?

Update: My friend Alicia (a.k.a. “Leesh”) emailed me to let me know that the

prices on these movie cabs are the current prices on the streets of

Manhattan! She writes:

weirdly,

the cab fares are up to date. they went up pretty recently (within the

last six months), so some art director’s mum should be proud!

I suspect that for the purposes of movie-making, these cabs don’t play

the recordings of celebrities that remind you to buckle up when you

board and to check for belongings when you debark. This is also

accurate; according to the NYC Taxicab Fact Book,

the voice recordings were phased out in 2002 since they had no effect

on whether passengers buckled up and simply annoyed cabbies and

passengers. I miss them — it doesn’t feel like the Big Apple without Jackie Mason giving you friendly reminders!