The first time I saw one of NYC’s Garden in Transit cabs, it was about to run me down. I got a good look at the floral decals across the hood and the top of the trunk. I assumed the car belonged to a free spirited driver trying rail against convention, stand out from the rest of the fleet. But I wondered whether one should be drawing attention while running red lights so boldly.
The next time, I was riding in the car with my mom; she was driving me back to Brooklyn after a weekend at home. I was scanning the curb for a free parking space when it caught my eye, and it didn’t even occur to me that it might be a doppelganger. “That’s the cab that almost hit me last week! Waaait a minute . . . ” My mom said, “I thought you were looking for a place to park.” I put the stalker-taxi in the back of my mind.
The next day, Manhattan was covered with neon flowers. I guess that ‘one’ blooming taxi cab wasn’t following me around Brooklyn after all.
But if this cab were stalking me, that would explain why it was parked right outside my building on Sunday morning.
The vinyl flower outlines have been completely removed from the hood and the patterns on the back are almost scraped off. It’s too bad that the same can’t be said for the new NYC Taxi logo.
There’s a video that shows the decal application process on the Portraits of Hope organization website. There is no demonstration of the removal process, though, and according the FAQ‘s, cab drivers who participated in the project are responsible for deflowering their own vehicles.
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