Photo: Jan Johannessen/Getty Images2010 Jan Johannessen
It hardly came as a shock to learn people were tipping a smaller percentage, on average, now that New York taxi fares have increased. It’s been six years since the last fare increase, which is a long time for people to get used to a rate. What was surprising about the New York Times’ analysis of taxi tipping trends, at least to Taxi Commissioner David Yassky, was the fact that people paying with credit cards sometimes pay a higher percentage even than the suggested 30 that comes as the highest option on the meter. “I was shocked when I found this out,” he told The Times. His conclusion: New Yorkers “don’t like to be pushed around.” Especially by some stingy machine.
