NEW YORK — New York’s reputation for foul-mouthed taxi drivers appears to be going the way of the checkered cab.

A driver is being fined $1,000 for a profanity-laden tirade he went on after getting honked at by a fellow cabbie.

The offended driver called police and accused his cursing colleague of assault.

The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission chairman levied the hefty fine along with a 30-day suspension, saying the “days when drivers can curse at each other are over.”

It wasn’t always so for New York’s cabbies.

Back in 1982, four-letter words were considered a part of daily life.

In a case in which a driver cursed out a pedestrian, the decision was the behaviour was acceptable, given “the realities of life in New York City.”

A lawyer for the cabbie says the decision is unnecessarily harsh and that it asks cabbies to be “inhuman and not react.”

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2008/05/14/5567291.html