The city's first two hybrid taxis will be introduced by Councilwoman and Transportation Committee Chair Wendy Greuel tomorrow morning on the South Lawn of City Hall. The two taxis will be operated by Bell Cab (the ones that are painted green, coincidentally enough), a company that's opted to replace two of their regular gassy vehicles with Toyota Priuses. According to Ben Golombek in Greuel's office, the city will actually begin offering financial incentives for cab companies to replace the city's 2,300 pollute-y taxis with hybrids. Way back in 2007, Greuel (she reps the Second District in the Valley) directed the Department of Transportation to create a plan for greening the city's current fleet of taxi cabs from older, gas-guzzling vehicles to hybrids. Not surprisingly, we're kind of late to this game: already, 14 percent of San Francisco's 1,438 taxis are hybrids, while hybrids make up 15 percent of New York's 13,237 fleet.
· Councilwoman Wendy Greuel [Official Site]
· Bell Cab [Official Site]
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