The taxi stand at Nassau St and Witherspoon St in downtown Princeton, which has existed for many years, is set to disappear. As part of their meeting on October 19, Princeton Council agreed to reconfigure the space as parking for downtown businesses.

The move was triggered by a proposal from Princeton University to relocate the adjacent bus stop to a site across from South Tulane Street. The bus stop serves north-bound passengers on Suburban Transit/Coach USA commuter buses to New York City, and the NJ Transit 606 bus route. After the bus stop is relocated, a proper bus shelter will be added, along with parking for bicycles. The Princeton Traffic Safety Committee has supported the proposed relocation of the bus stop, because they believe it will help reduce congestion at the intersection of Nassau and Witherspoon St.

With the bus stop moved from the intersection of Nassau and Witherspoon St, only taxicabs would be left standing at the existing site. It turns out that the taxi stand doesn’t get that much business. In a three-hour period, municipal staff only observed one passenger pick up a cab at the Nassau Street taxi stand. The number of licensed cabs registered in Princeton has also dropped significantly in recent years. Whereas 28 cabs were licensed in 2018, that number had halved by 2019, and has further dropped to just 5 in 2020. It seems that Princeton cab users are more frequently using services such as Uber and Lyft nowadays, and when they do need a cab ride, they call for the car to come to their location, instead of using the taxi stand on Nassau Street.

Council has therefore decided that the taxi stand should be eliminated, and the space used for metered parking instead. The stand is expected to disappear by April 15, 2021 Licensed cabs can still pick up passengers at the taxi stand at Princeton rail station.