7th Street & Lafayette Street

This is a Saturday night scene on the corner of 7th Street and Lafayette in the East Village. Notice the yellow taxi parked at the bottom left of the photo and another on the adjacent street before the traffic light junction. According to the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC), there are over 13,000 yellow taxicabs in New York City. The cost of a taxi ride starts at $2.50 upon entry and $0.40 for every 1/5 of a mile of travel or 60 seconds of sitting in traffic congestions. A quick ride uptown from lower Manhattan can easily cost $12 to $20 (before tips) depending on the time of the day and traffic on the street.

I, myself, rarely use the taxi service because I have an unlimited use subway pass ($81/month) and the subway trains run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The few times I've taken a taxicab are when I was heading to the airport or to any place that is not near a subway station.

A frequent question I get from out-of-towners is, "Won't it be faster to take the taxi?" and the answer is almost always NO. Because of the density of automobile traffic in NYC, it is usually faster to get around the city via the subway.

So have to taken a subway recently? What do you think of it?

Tribeca Street Scene

This is a street scene in Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal Street) on a week day evening around 6:00 PM. I was in the neighborhood for a meeting last week and decided to hang out in the area afterwards because I rarely come down this way.

So what do you usually do after work?

Upper East Side

Here is a view of Upper East Side (looking northwards) from the corner of Madison Avenue and 72nd Street. The street is empty because this photo was taken on a Sunday morning at 10 AM in the morning. I think half of the city were still in bed.

So do you usually sleep in on Sunday mornings?

N.B.: I am heading to Montreal for a short impromptu vacation. I will try to keep the photos coming whenever possible.