Taxi Drivers Get Sticker Reminding Them to Yield to Pedestrians

Cab drivers will soon be required to post a sticker on their windshields reminding them to watch for pedestrians in crosswalks.

It's part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero campaign, an ambitious effort to eliminate traffic fatalities.

New York City Taxi and Limousine commissioners agreed the stickers will be an effective way to remind drivers to yield to pedestrians when making left turns, a move that can be deadly: a 2010 city study found left turns are three times as likely to cause a deadly pedestrian crash than right turns.

Speaking at the public hearing, Dana Lerner, whose nine-year-old son Cooper Stock was killed after a cab driver failed to yield to him in the crosswalk, said the stickers are good — but aren't a substitute for teaching drivers basic rules.

"Is that the way to do the education piece? No, the education pieces needs to be done systematically with every person who works in a cab," she said.

A new piece of legislation named for her son — Cooper's Law — also goes into effect this weekend. Some commissioners voiced concern that the legislation, which would require the TLC to suspend the license of a cab driver who killed or critically injured a person, was too harsh.

"These rules could be a slippery slope," said Commissioner Nora Constance Marino, "to really lead to severe punishment on people's livelihoods for an accident which is negligence, which really shouldn't be punished so severely."

Regardless of Marino's opinion, "the TLC will act on Cooper’s Law as it was written,” said TLC chair Meera Joshi in a statement.