Taxi cabs: it's time to deploy them around downtown.

In New York City a pedestrian can hail a cab.  It's been that way for decades.  For some reason White Plains has not allowed that.

With plans for thousands of new apartments to be constructed, it's time to not simply revisit that issue but to change the policy.  In keeping with the mayor's objective of implementing change very soon in conjunction with the Trancenter revitalization, freeing the taxis is a quick and simple matter.

Since White Plains would also benefit from some simple means of getting residents to and from the train station, relying on the Westchester County Bee Line bus system seems much too passive.  Ideally, White Plains needs it's own system: bus or trolley or whatever.  Perhaps a simpler initial idea would be to designate taxi areas where cabs may wait for passengers.  This could start during rush hour to determine its viability.  There are obvious places: Lake Street, Old Mamaroneck Road, etc.  That can be worked out.

We should start thinking about this and any new ideas to reduce the number of all those short car trips.  It's a ridiculous situation.  We cannot continue to build more and more large parking garages.

If downtown residents living in apartments don't get ahead of this, the decision makers will revert to their usual unimaginative ways.