Being kind to those who drive us around New York City is always a good idea. However, a little extra kindness towards our taxi and ride share drivers is in order right now. This year, Ramadan started on May 6, and for a large number of drivers that means no food or drink from sun-up to sun-down. This isn’t just during visible sun light hours, but rather more technical interpretations determine the timing (with slight variations across different authorities) with the longest fasting day starting around 4:00 a.m. suhoor and ending around 8:30 p.m. iftar. We are right at the middle point now, where everything feels a bit harder and the days literally get longer.
That means for most of the working hours, many of our city drivers will have no food, drink, gum or cigarettes while they shuffle people around. Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of Islam; large shares of Muslims observe the holiday, according to surveys across the world. Ramadan represents the holiest month in the Muslim world and encourages adherents to focus on sacrifice and charity. For those who cannot fast due to physical or other limitations, there are prescriptions for charitable work and contributions instead.
So how does fasting affect work? Well, in parts of the world where the majority of the population observe Ramadan, working hours are often cut short to allow time for prayer and in recognition of the physical and mental difficulty of long daily fasting. But in the U.S., working days go unchanged and many Americans are entirely unaware that the holiday is upon us. There doesn’t appear to be any great physical benefit or damage from the month-long fast. However, many report the mental and spiritual replenishment is unparalleled.
Why focus on car services? For starters, as a non-Muslim who often uses car services, sitting in a taxi or ride sharing vehicle provides many New Yorkers an opportunity to get to know others for a short bit of time in a private setting. Second, while not all drivers are Muslim, of course, lots are. Clever research using a poorly de-identified database of New York City taxi drivers found that Mohammed is the most common first name, followed by other traditionally Muslim names like Abdul, Syed and Ahmed. In total, about 9% of New York City’s population identifies as Muslim, roughly 800,000 people. I think I’d be more prone to accident without food and water all day, but the statistics on traffic accidents in the city show no evidence of a Ramadan effect.
On the Gregorian calendar, the holiday moves around by about two weeks each year, but traffic accidents in NYC in the two weeks before, during and after show no great trends. Using data on traffic accidents from NYPD Traffic Stat, I charted the average numbers of accidents in each time range for the last three years here and found no noticeable uptick.
So next time you get in a cab, if you are one of those who talks to drivers, my advice is to ask if they are celebrating Ramadan. If so, a simple wish of “Happy Ramadan!” may be a welcome acknowledgement that makes getting through the long day just a little bit easier.
Cormack is an assistant professor at Stevens Institute of Technology.
