New York City Taxis Updating Their Displays To Look Like iMacs

Taxi-top displays, those triangular advertisements on top of NYC cabs, are getting a facelift. And even though it looks like the base of an iMac is now attached to the roof, I think it looks good. Or at least better.

The plastic triangles of yore are going to be replaced with these sleek (almost unibody?) aluminium units that pack LED backlighting and easy installation. The aluminium works here, it’ll hold up to the harsh weather of the city and freshen up an otherwise drab cab.

The main focus of these new taxi top displays are to make the advertisements stand out, to make it seem like they’re a crisp image on a monitor rather than some cheap-o piece of paper outlined by lights. And to that end, the new design works – the ads look vibrant.

But guess what? New Yorkers don’t give two shits about those ads. All they want to do is to be able to hail a cab as fast and as easy as possible. With this new design, the designers promise a stronger backlight on the “medallion number” which should mean it’ll be easier to tell which cabs are available (when the medallion number is lit up) and which are not (when it’s not lit up). The problem is it’s not going to be consistent (not all cabs will have this new taxi top) and it looks like it’ll be harder to see which cabs are available in the daytime.

I’m not wholly convinced that it’s going to be any more effective than the old model but with the new design rolling out within the month, I guess we’ll find out. [Bluemap Design via Yanko Design]