NYC Taxi Drivers See Green as New Cabs Cruise to Brooklyn

Six coats of DuPont GS028 paint did more than change Porfirio Valdez’s 2006 Lincoln Town Car from black to the color of a green apple. The new look almost doubled his income, too.

Valdez’s vehicle is one of the more than 2,100 Boro Taxis to hit New York’s streets since August, when the newest class of livery car was rolled out to better serve New Yorkers outside Manhattan, where yellow cabs cluster. The green paint job means Valdez, a 45-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, now earns about $1,200 per week, up from the $700 he made when his car was black and by law could only provide trips arranged through a dispatcher.