YOU'RE A CAB, SIR | January 2nd 2008

Mgmt Design for the Design Trust for Public Space

Does this transaction look familiar? Then join us in wishing the New York taxi a happy 100th birthday, and admiring a new volume of taxi manga from the Design Trust for Public Space ...

Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

A beautiful new report from the Design Trust for Public Space (co-written by our friend and colleague Rachel Abrams) celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first petrol-powered New York taxi. Created in partnership with New York City's public taxi agency, it explains the economics and logistics of the current industry, and hazards some recommendations about how to make the system, and the individual cab, and you the passenger, more efficient (share a cab!).

Better still, it tells much of the story in comic-strips and diagrams. Best of all, it's free to download--so no need to take up any more your time telling you what it says (inter alia, that we don't much care about drivers talking all the time on their cellphones, but we do wish they'd take Metrocards in payment).

Here's a few pages to get you started:

Cartoons: Jason Little for the Design Trust for Public Space