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Silence is golden: Taxi TVs may soon be gone forever

Written by
Jillian Anthony
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I can't count the number of times I've gotten into the back of a yellow cab and instantly turned off the taxi TV that blares in your ear without invitation. I also wondered on what level, from 1-5, the taxi drivers want to take a sledgehammer to the noisy things after riding around for 8-plus hours listening to Sandy Kenyon talk about bad films on repeat.

Those riotous days may be over if a proposal to replace the TVs with smartphone payment systems passes on Thursday, the New York Post reports. The Taxi and Limousine Commission has been riddled with complaints about the TVs from riders and drivers alike ever since they were instituted 9 years ago, and drivers (the ones forced to sit through Talk Stoop 80 times a day) don't see a dime of the money made from the ads that run. “Both drivers and passengers routinely report to the TLC that they find the default settings and volume on the Taxi TV distracting and that the ‘mute’ and ‘off’ buttons on the Taxi TV often do not work,” the proposal says.

So thanks for the memories, Taxi TV, but goodbye and good riddance! Any new program will be initiated citywide by 2017, so sit tight on your travels with good 'ol Sandy in the meantime.

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