There are more than 13,000 yellow cabs buzzing through the streets of New York City and a lot more all round the world.

They pick up businesspeople as they scramble to work and rescue fall-down drunks trying to get back to Brooklyn.

While it may be hard to imagine a time when the city wasn't one big bright-yellow blur, these cabs haven't always been a mainstay.

Somebody had to make them yellow, and that man was John Hertz.

In 1915, Hertz — the Chicago mastermind behind Hertz Rent-a-Car — founded the Yellow Cab Company.

He had read a study from the University of Chicago that said
yellow with a tint of red was the most visible color viewed from a distance (Whether that's actually true is another issue, as scientists have found our eyes actually tend to be most adept at picking up shades of green).
Hertz's insights stuck.

"It became an industry trend," Allan Fromberg, the chief spokesman for the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC),
told the New York Times in 2006. That trend "was continued when he and his partner, Walden Shaw, branched out to other cities, including New York City."

Cities such as Denver, Los Angeles, and Dallas have all adopted the system in some capacity.
Yellow cabs don't stand alone, however, even in New York City.

In 2011, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the
Five Borough Taxi Plan.
In addition to the yellow cabs hurtling through Manhattan, apple-green "boro" taxis now pick up people exclusively in the outer boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Bronx. They can also be hailed in Manhattan, but only above East 96th St. and West 110th St.

If neither a green or yellow cab suits you, an all-black livery cab — whose fare you will negotiate with the driver through gritted teeth — is also an option.

Just make sure you take Jerry Seinfeld's advice and buckle

source : business insider