TLC Rule 80-19(a)(4)(ii): Cruising Near a Taxi Stand

In short: Rule 80-19(a)(4)(ii) says a yellow taxi driver must not solicit or cruise for passengers within 100 feet of an authorized taxi stand. The fine is $100 if you plead guilty before a hearing or $150 if you are found guilty after one. Chapter 80 lists no points and you don't have to appear in person. It is a small-fine summons, but it has become more common: TLC wrote 48 of them in 2024, after only 3 in 2022.

What the rule says

Section 80-19(a)(4) of the TLC Chapter 80 rule book reads:

A Driver of a Taxicab must not solicit or cruise for the purpose of soliciting Passengers: (i) At Kennedy, La Guardia or Newark Airports (ii) Within 100 feet of any authorized Taxi Stand (iii) Within the private streets of Lincoln Center (iv) In any area of the City of New York where Taxicab cruising is prohibited

All four places share one penalty line: "$100 if plead guilty before a hearing; $150 if found guilty following a hearing. Appearance NOT REQUIRED." This page is about place (ii). The airport version is 80-19(a)(4)(i), and the catch-all is 80-19(a)(4)(iv).

Key words, in plain English:

• Solicit — try to get a passenger: signalling, calling out, or stopping to take a hail.
• Cruise for the purpose of soliciting — driving slowly or circling to find a fare.
• Authorized Taxi Stand — "a place where Taxicabs are authorized (either by NYC Department of Transportation or a transportation terminal operator) to line up and wait for customers" (TLC Chapter 51). On the street, that means a DOT sign such as "TAXI HAILING (SYMBOL) TAXI STAND".
• 100 feet — about six or seven car lengths.

The rule sits beside the stand rules: cabs on a stand must join at the back and wait their turn (rule §80-19(d)(4)), and a cab that takes a hail right beside the stand gets ahead of them.

Who it applies to

Drivers of yellow medallion taxis. Green cab drivers have a matching rule, §80-19(b)(2)(ii), with the same distance and fine. For-hire vehicle drivers may not take street hails at all, so a hail pickup near a stand by an FHV is charged under the FHV rules, such as §80-19(c)(1) or §80-19(d)(2).

Who writes it and how often

Almost all of these come from TLC, not the Port Authority Police. The OATH data has no usable location field, so it cannot show which stands are watched. Most of NYC's taxi stand signs are in Manhattan: DOT's records list 142 Manhattan block faces with a taxi stand sign, against 17 in Queens, 13 each in the Bronx and Brooklyn, and 1 on Staten Island (NYC Open Data). The taxi stand and cruising summonses page compares this code with the others.

Common situations

• A passenger waves at you half a block from a busy stand with a line of cabs, and you stop.
• You drive slowly past a stand looking for a fare instead of joining the back of the line.
• You let a passenger in next to a stand whose sign has hours (for example "10PM-4AM ALL DAYS"), at a time the stand may or may not have been in effect.
• You were dropping off, or stopped in traffic, near a stand and were charged as if you were soliciting.

Does the summons fit what happened?

Penalty and points

Because no points are listed, this summons does not by itself count toward the Persistent Violator Program. The $50 difference between the two fines is the cost of losing at a hearing.

What to do and points to discuss with your lawyer

These are general questions, not legal advice:

• Was it an authorized stand? Ask whether there was a DOT taxi stand sign (or a terminal stand) in place on that day. A missing or covered sign may matter.
• Was the stand in effect? Some stand signs have hours. A stand that only runs "10PM-4AM" may not have been a stand at 3 PM.
• Distance. The rule says 100 feet. Measure from the stand's sign or curb markings to where you stopped.
• Soliciting vs other stops. Dropping off, waiting at a light, or a dispatched e-hail trip are different from soliciting. Rule §80-19(a)(1) lists e-hail apps among the ways a taxi driver may get passengers; whether an e-hail pickup next to a stand counts as "soliciting" is a question for your representative.
• The details on the summons. Check the date, time, place and code against your trip records.

Bring: the summons, photos of the stand and its signs, a sketch with measured distances, your trip records for the time, and dashcam video if your vehicle has an approved camera. TLC explains how to respond, plead or schedule a hearing on its summons page.

Related rules

All stand rules, with fines and counts, are in taxi stand rules. The line-jumping rule is 80-19(d)(4); interference with a stand position is 80-19(d)(1); FHV pickups at a stand are 80-19(d)(2); and the stay-in-the-seat rule is 80-19(d)(6). The yellow taxi driver page links them all, and relief stands are where to park for a break. More on the places hub.