Reflections before moving forward as I welcome myself back to the internet

It has been an interesting year and one of many changes for me. I feel as if I haven't been sharing much on my blog because I needed to focus on living out the changes first. Feeling more focused now, I intend to return to writing things. Also, my new phone (<3) does not have a cripplingly-small amount of internal memory like my last one, so I intend to get appy again and post much more.

Over this last year, professionally, I have never felt more satisfied. We put our new cab on last April, and witnessing the performance of the Prius over this year has been very exciting! Our odometer is already over 75,000 miles because the vehicle barely sits still: when my night partner or I take a shift off we can almost always lease it out because there are many lease drivers who want to drive a hybrid. I actually get a "weekend" now! Most small business owners dream of such a thing. I feel very fortunate.

Because we replaced a conventional police car as our taxi, Radio Cab #106's fuel consumption over this year went down by 3,187 gallons! In terms of carbon that can be represented by over 31 tons! And at $4 a gallon, our cab saved $12,748 in fuel costs. Downtown driving is usually in electric mode, so I am not coughing fumes at bikers anymore, and every time we are loading, unloading, waiting out front, at a light, with our turn signal on, etc. we are not idling! Taxis are a wonderful application for hybrid vehicle technology.

And I get all kinds of compliments on the cab! People appriciate the quietness of the hybrid system and the cleanliness and professionalism that comes with driving a new car. A surprising number of people remark on how it is their first ride in a Prius and are always impressed by how much room they have. Many passengers have told me that they would rather ride in a Prius for the environmental consideration, if given a choice. 

It is a win all the way around and I am proud to share it. Here is my sense of accomplishment in pictoral form ;)

Thanks for reading! 

Here is a video my friend James Kelly did with me last summer talking about the new cab, I am a little embarressed I haven't posted it here yet. If you haven't seen it, enjoy :)