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NYC cabbies avoiding Chinese neighborhoods over coronavirus fears
By Michael KaplanFebruary 15, 2020 | 2:50pm | Updated
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Ada Robinson, 37, originally from Hong Kong attempts to hail a taxi.
Fear of catching the coronavirus has some cabbies and ride-share drivers discriminating against customers.
“I feel bad about it, but when I see Chinese passengers, I just go,” one cab driver — who asked that his name be withheld, lest his hack license get suspended — told The Post. “I don’t pick up anyone Chinese. I’m scared. I don’t want to get the disease.”
Other drivers are avoiding certain areas of the city.
“If I drop off somebody in Flushing [the Queens neighborhood with a Chinese population of some 70,000], I deactivate the app [and drive to another area],” an Uber driver told The Post. “I don’t know who has it . . . I worry for myself, my family and my passengers.”
Ada Robinson, who moved to New York from Hong Kong 10 years ago, believes she was discriminated against by two Lyft drivers last Sunday.
When the first driver showed up to retrieve Robinson, she told The Post, “I pointed to him, he looked at me, and he left. Then he canceled the ride. A second driver came, looked at me and drove around the corner. He hesitated and drove off.”
‘I don’t pick up anyone Chinese. I’m scared. I don’t want to get the disease.’
- NYC taxi driver
Robinson, a 37-year-old accountant and the mother of one who lives on the Upper East Side, said she had to wonder if she was snubbed “because of coronavirus phobia.”
