"Black Cars" (and yellow cabs)

[bapopik at AOL.COM]

OED has no entry for "black car."
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(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
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NEW YORK'S 15,000 CRUISING TAXIS MAKE CITY UNSAFE -- TIE UP TRAFFIC; Divided Authority in Controlling Cabs and Mixup of Rates Add to General Confusion -- One Remedy Proposed Would Convert Cabs Into Jitney Buses in Rush Hours
New York Times (1857-Current. Feb 4, 1923. p. XX11 (1 page) :
The largest company operating under the lowest tariff painted its taxis yellow. Immediately other owners followed example and the city is now flooded with yellow taxicabs which have varying rates. The only colors the law recognizes are the brown and white taxiabs, which, according to the ordinance, must have a green flag. Yellow and black cars may utilize any color.
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500 Radio Cabs Are Converted to Street-Hail Duty
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Nov 7, 1982. p. 59 (1 page) :
"This way everybody's happy," said Steve Galiatsatos, president of the Dialcab Taxi Owners Guild Association. "we're servicing the public with cabs on the street to be hailed, and the black car takes care of our corporate accounts."

Operators of the "black cars"--whose colors, in fact, vary, depending on the preference of fleet owners or individual drivers--may service radio calls only.
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Mr. Ippolito, who is also president of Inta-Boro, predicted that half the drivers of radio-equipped medaliion taxis will have switched to "black cars" by December 1983.
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New York Making Changes To Improve Its Taxi Service; New York Acting on Changes to Improve City's Taxi Service
By SUZANNE DALEY. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: May 26, 1984. p. 1 (2 pages)
First page:
Meanwhile, the commission has increased the number of yellow cabds available for street hails by getting some of them to transfer their radios to a new type of taxi called a "black car," which answers only telephone summonses.
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en Cabs Are Rare, Travelers Summon Their Ingenuity; Travelers Use Ingenuity to Hail Cabs
By SUZANNIE DALEY. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jul 10, 1984. p. B1 (2 pages)
Pg. B4:
In the past two years, the city has increased the number of yellow cabs available for street hails by allowing the owners of the yellows to transfer their radios to black cars--licensed, nonmedallion taxis. The black cars answer radio calls, allowing the yellows to keep cruising for fares.
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Car Services Increase in Popularity
By LISA BELKIN. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 7, 1984. p. B20 (1 page) :
To increase the number of cars available for street hails, the commission decided to allow the transfer of the radios to so-called black cars, which are licensed but nonmedallion taxis.

Operators soon discovered a demand for these black cars, which were, in many ways, less expensive to operate than a medallion cab.
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Yellow Cabs and Black Cars: A Quick Lesson
By ANDY NEWMAN. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Nov 17, 1998. p. B14 (1 page) :
Until the 1950's, yellow cabs (although they weren't all yellow then) were the only private cars that picked up passengers and transported them for a fee. But as yellow cabs focused more of their business in the lower two-thirds of Manhattan, neighborhood car services, which can pick up passengers only by prearrangement, began to spring up in other parts of the city.

Today the term "livery car" encompasses a range of private taxis, including car services that serve the working and middle classes, "black cars" that transport businesspeople, commuter vans in Queens and Brooklyn and vans for the disabled.