Many New Yorkers do not own cars, but prefer to take a taxi or the subway, or to just walk. A joke is that a New Yorker learns how to drive by raising an arm and hailing a taxi.
The joke hasn’t been cited very often in print. It’s more of a fact than a joke that New Yorkers just don’t drive cars.
Twitter
Dave (WildMan) Weber
@wmwpres
@chi_grl19 Nonsense..it’s easy to drive in Chicago..just put out arm and yell “Taxi”. 😉
3:05 PM - 17 Oct 2014
Financial Review (Australia)
Jul 20 2015 at 11:55 AM Updated Jul 20 2015 at 11:55 AM
Why Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are hot on Uber, and Hillary Clinton is not
The yellow cab is a New York City institution on wheels. That essential image still fits the old joke about how a true New Yorker learns to drive – by raising an arm and shouting “taxi”.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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