About 117 years ago on August 13th, 1907:

The first metered taxicab took to the streets of New York City. Harry N. Allen incensed after being charged five dollars ($126.98 in today’s dollars) for a journey of 0.75 miles (1.21 km), decided “to start a [taxicab] service in New York and charge so-much per mile.” Later that year he imported 65 gasoline-powered cars from France and began the New York Taxicab Company. The cabs were originally painted red and green, but Allen repainted them all yellow to be visible from a distance. By 1908 the company was running 700 taxicabs.