City of yellow cabs
New York
Yellow taxis thread streets of brown stone, grey steel and glass; a green statue stands in the harbour.
Why New York is taxi yellow
The yellow taxi is the best-known colour of New York. Yellow cabs appeared in American cities in the early 20th century, on the idea that yellow is easy to see from far away. Since the late 1960s the city has required its licensed street-hail taxis to be yellow, so that passengers can tell them from unlicensed cars. A second fleet, in apple green, was added in 2013 to serve the outer boroughs. The rest of the palette is quieter. Row houses in Manhattan and Brooklyn are faced in brownstone, a soft brown sandstone. The Statue of Liberty is copper that has weathered to pale green. At night, the lights on the Empire State Building change colour for holidays.
#F7B500Brownstone#6B4A3CBoro taxi green#8DB600Liberty copper green#6FA89ASteel grey#7F8589Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to New York
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Taxis of New York City" on Wikipedia. If you know New York and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
🇺🇸 Red Rock CountrySedonaA small Arizona city ringed by towers and cliffs of red sandstone, with rules that keep buildings muted.
🇺🇸 The adobe citySanta FeNew Mexico's capital, where a city rule keeps buildings in earth-coloured adobe style with turquoise trim.
🇺🇸 Art Deco pastelsMiami BeachHundreds of 1930s hotels in pink, mint, aqua and peach line the streets behind the beach, with neon at night.
🇺🇸 Purple, green and goldNew OrleansA city of brightly painted cottages and iron balconies, dressed in purple, green and gold each carnival.
🇺🇸 Rainbow RowCharlestonThirteen Georgian merchants' houses in a row, each a different pastel, on the waterfront of a southern port.
🇺🇸 Painted Ladies and International OrangeSan FranciscoA red-orange bridge chosen to show through fog, and Victorian wooden houses painted in three or more colours.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Sedona Us: Adam Baker, CC BY 2.0, source
- Santa Fe Us: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Miami Beach Us: Massimo Catarinella, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- New Orleans Us: thepipe26, CC BY 2.0, source
- Charleston Us: Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- San Francisco Us: Lightandtruth, CC BY-SA 4.0, source