--- title: New York City Taxi Cabs Through History: See How They've Changed description: From horse-and-buggy to horsepower canonical: https://time.com/3913127/checker-cab-photos/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-18T11:00:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:09.268Z article:section: History og:title: New York City Taxi Cabs Through History: See How They've Changed og:description: New Yorkers have been hauled around in all sorts of vehicles og:url: https://time.com/3913127/checker-cab-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a2867f7af37e559/6988537fe20a87dbe6a8bbbd/150608-nyc-taxi-cabs-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1303 og:image:height: 733 og:image:alt: NYC Taxi Cab 1934 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New York City Taxi Cabs Through History: See How They've Changed twitter:description: New Yorkers have been hauled around in all sorts of vehicles twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a2867f7af37e559/6988537fe20a87dbe6a8bbbd/150608-nyc-taxi-cabs-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See Photos of Vintage New York Taxi Cabs > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 18, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  A new stream-lined taxi-cab in New York City in 1934\. The new vehicle was roomier and more comfortable for passengers than earlier versions. A new stream-lined taxi-cab in New York City in 1934\. The new vehicle was roomier and more comfortable for passengers than earlier versions. Planet News Archive—SSPL/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 18, 2015 11:00 AM UTC From horse-drawn carriages to today’s hybrid sedans, New Yorkers have long relied on cabs to get around town. But no cab is more ingrained in city lore than the boxy Checker. And it was on this day, June 18, 1923, that the first one was manufactured at the Checker Cab factory in Kalamazoo, Mich. By 1930, TIME was [reporting](http://time.com/vault/issue/1930-09-22/page/43/) that Checker would soon control a full 10% of all of the taxis in the nation. An even higher percentage were Checkers by 1963, when TIME [took a look](http://time.com/vault/issue/1963-08-02/page/64/) at where they came from: --- > “” --- The good times couldn’t last. In 1982, the company [stopped making taxis. ](http://time.com/vault/issue/1982-04-19/page/78/)It was the end of an era—but, as these photos show, it was just one of many. ### All Hail New York Taxis: Gotham Cabs and Cabbies of the 1940s  A New York City doorman flags down a taxi for one of the residents of his building, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene in New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene in New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Taxicabs line up for arriving train passengers at (the original) Pennsylvania Station, New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  New York cabbies sporting their numbered Public Hack Driver badges, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene in New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Taxi "hack stand," New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Train passengers wait to take taxi cabs outside (the original) Pennsylvania Station, New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Close-up of typical cab driver's report including locations and fares collected during his day's work; taxicab drivers lined up at company's garage to turn in money collected in fares during the day (right), New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Mechanics use a hoist to drop in the motor of a taxicab under repair at cab company's maintenance garage, NYC, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Taxicabs on Park Avenue, NYC, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene in New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  View of a hansom cab, parked at the sidewalk, near Madison Square, New York, 1905. PhotoQuest—Getty Images  Woman passenger in a 1910 taxi cab, New York. National Motor Museum—Heritage Images/Getty Images  Miss Maude Odell, one of the first women taxi drivers in New York. She is cranking car (Hub Taxicab Corporation), 1923. Corbis  A new stream-lined taxi-cab in New York City in 1934\. The new vehicle was roomier and more comfortable for passengers than earlier versions. Planet News Archive—SSPL/Getty Images  G.H. Brodie, Assistant to the President of Packard Motor Car Co.; Sam Abramson, President of Yale Taxi Co. in New York; and Robert King, President of Packard Federal Corp. (left to right), pictured with the first postwar taxi, in 1946\. One of its features was fitting five forward-facing passengers without the usual "jump seats." Bettmann—Corbis  Representative models of the three makes of autos which meet the new specifications for service as New York taxi cabs get a going-over by officials at the Police Division of Licenses Headquarters, July 15, 1954\. Left to right, the new stock model small taxis expected to be on the streets by July 16th are: A Chevrolet, a Plymouth, and a Ford. Bettmann—Corbis  Two women getting into the first British-built Austin taxi licensed in New York, 1960. Hulton Archive—Getty Images  Taxis are seen in mid-Manhattan, New York, Nov. 17, 1970. Marty Lederhandler—AP Photo  A checkered cab is pulled over on New York's Central Park South, May 4, 1982, right around the time that the Checkered Motor Co. announced it was going out of production. G. Paul Burnett—AP Photo  Taxis move through a traffic lane in New York City, 1995 James Leynse—Corbis  In 2011, the Taxi and Limousine Commission along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg annouced the Nissan NV200 has been chosen as the winner of the Taxi of Tomorrow competition and will become the City’s exclusive taxicab for a decade. 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