The oldest hackies tell it like it was (1966) (opens in new tab)

This is a fascinating insight into the diversity of road vehicles at the beginning of the 20th century. Internal combustion engines and electric motors of comparable prevalence on the roads is a situation that we are only now beginning to witness again - after a period of a hundred years. It seems as if horse-drawn vehicles are still around in New York City as tourist attractions, but in this century I don't think anyone would even fathom enlisting an equine associate for goods transport within NYC. As for pushcarts, I would posit that the sacktrolley has probably displaced any other form of wheelbarrow or pushcart, but I've never been to NYC myself, so that's just a hunch.

> “The trouble is the law. They’ve got no teeth in them. What they should do is make every fourth street an express street cross town and localize it in the afternoon for deliveries. That way you wouldn’t get bottle necks.” Before he could explain “localize” Salit saw a woman walking toward his parked cab.

I imagine that "local" is the negation of "express", as with Subway services. So to localize an express street is to make it not an express street. Perhaps a sensible thing to do in the afternoon, when there is not so much traffic, but a lot of deliveries.

I don't know what he meant by an express street, though!

This is a good companion read about the taxi vehicles of that time too: http://tlc-mag.com/archive_issues/amer_taxi_oct06.html