By ANNIE KARNI

New York City taxi drivers hail from more than 130 countries, and America is one of the five most common countries of origin, according to records for 2006 obtained from the Taxi & Limousine Commission.

Just two drivers indicated on their applications that they were originally from Switzerland, making them as rare a breed on the city streets as the new hybrid Lexus taxis. More than 5,200 drivers were originally from Bangladesh, making the South Asian country the most common country of origin among cabbies, followed by Pakistan, India, and Haiti.

America was fifth, with about 2,300 drivers, and New York natives made up more than half of the American-born drivers, according to the Taxi & Limousine Commission documents.

"A lot of people get in my cab, and they think I'm an emperor or something," a Jewish taxi driver born and raised in Brooklyn, Roy Seligson, said. "People are impressed with an American driver who speaks English. But we're still out there more than you think."

More than 1,300 drivers indicated on their applications that they were originally from New York.

Before the mid-1980s, the people who drove taxis were often off-duty police officers, college students, and artists who drove part-time to earn extra cash, according to the head of the Mutual League of Taxi Drivers, Vincent Sapone. An increase in crime in the 1980s drove away the profession people who had other options, a transportation consultant who studies taxi driver origins, Bruce Schaller, said.

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