Before the days of Uber, even champion taxi-hailers would have to stand and wait, hands in the air, because there never seemed to be an empty cab. In this photo, a woman takes on the challenge in one of the toughest places to land a cab even on a sunny day: Times Square.

The taxi world has changed a great deal in the past six decades, but getting a ride in the Big Apple always seems to be an adventure. In 1955, Times reporter Meyer Berger wrote in his About New York column, "More than 60 per cent of the 11,800 taxicabs in use in the city right now are the small, stock-car models. Of these, more than 45 per cent are two-tone, not unlike most of the late-model private vehicles. Harlem has the most spectacular color combinations, including some royal purple-and-gold numbers that glow in the dark. Morton Lesley noticed near Parkchester in the Bronx the other night two nearsighted dowagers who frantically waved their umbrellas at a green-and-white job speeding by. It screeched to a halt, U-turned, and pulled to the curb where they stood. The ladies mumbled apology. It was a police radio car. The cops, probably because they'd been through it before, saluted, grinned and tooled off again."