Taxi Talk: No More ‘Noo Yawk’ Accent

After too many complaints about the thick local dialect that was piped into the back seats of some taxis, New York City cabs are getting a new voice.

The automatic recording will still urge passengers to remember to take their belongings and ask for a receipt, but the message won’t be delivered in a New York accent anymore. The Taxi and Limousine Commission rerecorded the announcement in what many consider to be a Midwestern accent. Some New Yorkers quizzed by the New York Post used words such as “sacrilege” to describe the change.

“It’s more fun with a New York voice,” said Bill Long of Clever Devices, the voice-systems company. “But since when does the government do anything fun?”