Norwalk: Meandering Investigations Part II

by turfgrrl

May 14th, 2008 · 9 Comments

The taxi cab stand in, off and around has certainly generated enough comments, and in keeping with Dante’s Inferno, this level is eight and we pay close attention to Bolgia 6 while looking out for Blogia 5. You’d think I’d get enough fun reading traffic studies, but clearly not enough because I read the data form the Taxi study. Which was performed in the merry month of January. Er, January is not merry is it? I digress. The data tracked, number of tax cab with fares, number of taxi cabs parked and number of taxi cabs circling. See how we keep getting back to circles?

Onto the data. Three days worth at least, 7 Am to 8 PM. Wednesday 1/16/08 , Thursday 1/17/08 and Friday 1/18/08.

Total fares

Wed: 126
Thur: 214

Fri: 166

Total Waiting Taxis

Wed: 423
Thur: 603
Fri: 404

Total Circling Taxis

Wed: 51
Thur: 124
Fri: 55

I found it interesting that the 7 AM through 10 AM fares were a little around twice the number than the 5 PM to 8 PM fares on Thursday and Friday.
Wed: 43 AM 40 PM
Thur: 79 AM 47 PM
Fri: 63 AM 28 PM

The other important item is that the Taxi companies were asked over a year ago to help manage the problem of waiting taxis over a year ago. Meetings were held to go over parking and drop off proposals and the plan implemented at the beginning of the week was the result of those meetings. Which makes it somewhat disingenuous for taxi cab drivers to now claim that they knew nothing about the proposed changes. None of peak fare hours passed 20 fares, and most of the hours resulted in 5 or less fares.

If the local taxi companies ran an actual dispatch with an analysis of the numbers, they too would see that they have too many taxis idling at the train station, when they could be running trips. Unless having taxis idle at the train station is the plan.

Tags: Norwalk

9 Responses so far ↓ “Norwalk: Meandering Investigations Part II”

1 Pekup Andropov // May 14, 2008 at 1:41 pm

1. what were the beginning and end points of thiose fares? Were they cming to Norwalk from westbound trains or eastbound trains?
2. What was the definition of “circling”?
3. How many cabs were in queue at any one time?
4. What was the maximim waiting time for:
a: taxis for a fare?
b: fares for a taxi?

The data you cite, TG, seems a bit too raw to have much meaning. I suggest that the study may have been flawed.
2 turfgrrl // May 14, 2008 at 2:15 pm

Pekup Andropov: The questions you raised are good ones, but some are more akin to managing a taxi service than whether there’s the appropriate number of taxi cabs at a train station. That being said, yep, I cherry picked some data just to put some facts on the table. For example, there was a column on drop offs, but the numbers were low and I wanted to just look at the “big picture.”

One question I would explore more in depth is the morning usage. It’s an interesting data point.

But back to the big picture, the taxi companies could have, apparently, helped themselves, but seemed not to.
3 Anonymous // May 14, 2008 at 6:27 pm

Where would be the entire data and how much did it cost to gather and who did it?

Did the traffic flow data that was done for Rowyaton play any part of the decision making and where would that data be?

The very same roads that pass on both sides of the train station was marked and were collection points for the no thru trucks on the route.Where would the data be found? They could also be considered the most recent.
4 Anonymous // May 14, 2008 at 10:48 pm

Isn’t it interesting that the traffic study was done right before the MLK holiday. Many people take that week off for a vacation. Anyway, why aren’t there cabs on both the East and West bound sides?

And since this “better system” has been put in place, it is a traffic jam just to drop off people at the station. The cabs are lined up right to the front door interferring with people trying to drop off their family members and interfere with the other commuters trying to gain entrance to the garage.

The public is damned because there are only 3 spaces to park. And if you are handicapped, you’re screwed!! It sucks, is an inconvievce, and since these people who put this “better system” into place, DON’T take the train everyday, how is it that you can defend them or this system? After you commute to and from NY everyday for 10 years or more, then come back and talk about it.
5 Public Forum Tues 6:30 Neon // May 15, 2008 at 9:21 am

There will be a chance for the public to express their thoughts about the So Norwalk train station taxi stand setup.

Tuesday, May 10th 6:30 p.m. at NEON community center on South Main street.

Commuters, customers of SNEW and taxi users to speak up and advise the public officials of their needs.
6 MGeake // May 15, 2008 at 9:27 am

Can I assume May 20th?
7 Carlos Santiago // May 15, 2008 at 9:34 am

Forget it. The Mayor said that it is here to stay, and it is not going to change.

Wow! Even it turns out to be a disaster this winter, it is staying. So take that you idiots.
8 1 of the SMD 3 // May 16, 2008 at 9:33 am

How about this angle???
LAZ saw a way to put more cash in their pockets by creating more parking spaces where the taxi’s were parking. Thus, get rid of them (transfer to State St), create more revenue and solve the “problem” with the taxi drivers. Now we see cars parked ALL along the east side drive area across from the station.
Hmmmmmm…. mo money, mo money, mo money..

Looks like SNEW isn’t going to fold like a cheap camera (like some of our politians) from what we saw in yesterdays Hour.
Should be very interesting to see how this will play out.
9 Anonymous // May 17, 2008 at 9:10 am

The Hour once again portrays the city of Norwalk and its taxi and train station as being the circus the mayor has created.Tempers are rising over decisions made over parking and taxi stand location.We obviously made headlines today in the Hour showing a crazed city not to visit if you have a family.Great article and in the Hour of all places to find such PR for Norwalk shame they didn’t hold it over for the Sunday edition.