Judge Allows Pilot Program Using Smartphone Apps to Hail Yellow Taxis

Last month, the justice, Carol E. Huff, issued a temporary restraining order on the plan, granting a short-term victory to the livery and black-car operators who sued the city. The plaintiffs argued, among other points, that the city’s plan would allow drivers to more easily refuse fares and that it discriminated unfairly against older riders who did not use smartphones.

They also said that allowing the use of the apps would violate the city’s longstanding ban on prearranged rides in yellow taxis, giving rise to the same problems wrought by radio communication in yellow taxis more than 25 years ago. In 1985, the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission ruled that medallion taxis would be barred from using two-way radio communication to arrange passenger pickups.

In her decision, Justice Huff wrote that the circumstances were not necessarily analogous.

“Petitioners have not demonstrated that the 1985 radio-dispatch situation with taxis is sufficiently comparable to the proposed e-hail program,” she wrote, “so that the same problems of taxi unavailability and passenger discrimination are destined to occur.”

At a moment when several pillars of the Bloomberg administration’s taxi policy have been threatened by unresolved lawsuits — including its Taxi of Tomorrow plan and efforts to expand street-hailing service outside Manhattan — Tuesday’s decision delivered a much-desired victory for the city.

“The market will ultimately decide which apps rise or fall, and we have an obligation to give the riding public that choice,” David S. Yassky, the city’s taxi commissioner, said in a statement. “Thanks to today’s ruling, they have that choice.”

Randy M. Mastro, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, which include the Livery Roundtable and the Black Car Assistance Corporation, called the ruling “so fundamentally wrong in so many respects that we are contemplating an appeal.”

Smartphone apps are in wide use already for livery and black-car operators. In December, the commission voted to approve a pilot program for the apps in yellow cabs, after several board members appeared poised to oppose a proposed permanent rule change.

Before the vote, as app companies like Uber and Hailo sought to enter the yellow taxi market, the city was criticized for its reluctance to embrace the new technology immediately. Officials said at the time that they could not allow the apps until contracts with payment processors had expired.

On Tuesday, Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive — who once noted that New York City contrasted with “more innovation-friendly cities” like Boston and Toronto — praised the Bloomberg administration as “forward-looking, tech-friendly and visionary.”

Judge Temporarily Blocks Use of Smartphone Apps to Hail Yellow Cabs

Granting at least a short-term victory to the livery and black-car operators who filed suit against the city, Justice Carol E. Huff issued a temporary restraining order until March 19, when the two sides are scheduled to reconvene. Owners of for-hire vehicles have argued that the city’s plan violates a longstanding ban on prearranged rides in yellow taxis and would upend their business model.

“It’s not an ‘e-hail.’ It’s an ‘e-prearranged pickup,’ ” said Randy M. Mastro, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, which include the Livery Roundtable and the Black Car Assistance Corporation.

City officials expressed confidence that the program would not be stopped for long, noting that Justice Huff had not ruled on the merits of the case. “We understand why the court would want time to consider this issue after first receiving voluminous legal filings from all sides earlier this afternoon,” Michelle Goldberg-Cahn, a lawyer for the city, said in a statement.

David S. Yassky, the city’s taxi commissioner, said, “Passengers can wait 10 days to enjoy the latest technology.”

Smartphone apps are already widely used to reserve livery and black cars. In December, the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission approved, by a vote of 7 to 0 with 2 abstentions, a pilot program for the apps to be used for yellow cabs. A permanent rule change had initially been proposed, but as the vote neared and it appeared that a majority of board members might oppose the program, the commission settled on a temporary pilot program instead.

Before the vote, with app companies like Uber seeking to enter the yellow taxi market, the city faced criticism for not immediately embracing the new technology. The city said at the time that it could not approve the apps until its contracts with payment processors had expired.

The app suit is the latest in a deluge of legal challenges to the city’s taxi policies. The Bloomberg administration’s plan to expand street-hail service outside of Manhattan has been stalled in court since last year. And industry officials have expressed skepticism about whether the proposed Taxi of Tomorrow, which has also faced lawsuits in advance of its scheduled introduction late this year, will ever reach the road in its current form.