Cabbies Clog Routes Into New York to Protest Fares

A noisy, slow-rolling wave of 600 yellow taxis flooded two main routes into Manhattan today, clogging rush-hour traffic and converging on City Hall to protest the city’s refusal to grant a fare increase.

Police helicopters whirred overhead as seven police cruisers escorted a mass of cabs over the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall. A Queens contingent crept past Shea Stadium and La Guardia Airport, swarming over the Triborough Bridge and down the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive along the East River.

Honking horns filled the air as some cabbies pulled over to join 100 people hoisting placards reading “K.O.C.H., Keep Our Children Hungry.”

They blamed Mayor Edward I. Koch for breaking a promise to secure a fare increase effective Dec. 1. The last taxi fare hike was in 1980.

Koch, who said he never made such a statement, has moved to delay the fare decision until the City Council considers increasing the current number of 11,787 taxi medallions by 1,800 and regulating livery cabs, which are mostly limousines, and unlicensed cabs, called gypsies.

The creeping mass of yellow cabs jammed rush-hour traffic in Queens and Brooklyn, which is usually thick anyway. About 300 police and traffic agents and about a dozen tow trucks were deployed to keep cabbies moving.

By early afternoon the protest had ended, and Manhattan traffic moved along at its typically slow pace.