METER TIP: If your passenger does not want a receipt, hold the paper down as it prints out. This saves you (or the next driver) from having to replace a spent roll. It also reduces the amount of litter you must dispose of when you clean out your cab at the end of your shift. It cuts down on the cutting down of trees, as you will be saving paper.

Obviously, if your fare uses a credit card (over $25) you need to print out a copy for them to sign. Even more paper is wasted by the gap the meter creates between each receipt. At least hold it down after the information has printed. I do not know of any other cabbie who does this. Everyone just lets the roll empty out through the course of the shift. It saddens me that we do not appreciate the miracle of carbon dioxide being transformed back into oxygen.

RED LIGHT CAMERA SIGHTINGS: At the 108^th Street exit off the LIE in Queens, as you approach the intersection. Eight Avenue approaching 57^th Street, just before Columbus Circle.

WEDNESDAY (4/7) 1:00 PM AT CITY HALL CHAMBERS. PLEASE PARK YOUR CAB AND ATTEND THE NEW TLC CHAIRMAN'S FIRST PUBLIC FORUM, IN WHICH HE WILL ADDRESS THE UNFAIR CRIMINALIZATION OF CABBIES. WE MUST SHOW THIS CITY THAT WE CARE ABOUT OUR REPUTATION!

CRIME RATE IS GOING UP IN NYC: Be very careful nowadays. I hear of subway muggings almost daily. People dozing off on the train and all of sudden someone punches them in the face and takes off with loot. The teenage boy in Prospect Park who was stabbed to death by a half dozen young men, for no apparent reason!

Barely reported in the media was last week's assault on a yellow cabdriver. He had two women passengers and one of them urinated on the floorboard. When he stopped and walked over to the back, they slit his throat with a knife. Sixteen stitches later he survived, thankfully. Don't confront your fare. Hide your cash. Be ready for anything. If Bloomberg or Daus drove a cab, you best bet they'd carry a crowbar!