While cab drivers would never be entrusted to, say, lead a group of elementary school kids around a museum, the Taxi and Limousine Commission is reporting our 42nd Street-loving cab drivers are turning over a new leaf and becoming nicer.

There's been a 26 percent drop in "rudeness" from cabbies, according to so called "city records." And leave it to TLC chairman Matthew Daus to point to the city's non-emergency 311 hotline, which somehow holds cab drivers accountable for rude behavior. (Because "You better not take me through Times Square or I'm calling 311!" works so well.)

But while the rudeness between the partition may have narrowed, that's not saying much for their behavior when you're not paying their meter.

Some frequent cab riders said drivers generally are not discourteous - but they're not exactly ambassadors, either. "Only when I'm a pedestrian do I find rudeness, when they try to run me down in the crosswalk," said Les Cohen, 51, a Manhattan sales rep.

Sounds like someone needs to understand what hussle means. Or at least put 311 on his speed dial.