A strike called by a New York City taxi drivers? group over city plans for a high-tech video-and-fare system thinned the ranks of yellow cabs on the streets yesterday, producing frustrating waits on corners, long lines at the airports and angry exchanges over an ad-hoc fare system. Union leaders and city officials differed over the effectiveness of the walkout. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which called the strike, maintained that 90 percent of drivers were idle yesterday. But Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the figure was far lower. Still, many would-be passengers spent more time with hands in the air, stuck in that eternal pose of big-city hopelessness.
See "Cabs Are on Strike, but Are on the Street, Too", James Barron, The New York Times, September 5, 2007