Taxi Drivers

whilst enjoying my recent trip to the states, i still found time to continue my dubious record of getting into heated disputes with taxi drivers in virtually every country i've ever visited. this has left me wondering (again) whether i have a serious problem or whether losing my rag with cabbies is a perfectly understandable reaction given the shit they pull?

basically, i'd been out drinking with a few locals in brooklyn and whilst very drunk and not knowing exactly where i was, i was picked up somewhere in the area of atlantic avenue and 5th avenue and told him to take me to 38th & 4th.

during conversation, the driver revealed he was born in brooklyn, lived in brooklyn, i could see that he made a living driving passengers around brooklyn and the streets go numerically all the way down to the verrazano narrows bridge. how the fuck does a brooklyn native park up somewhere after driving around for a bit claiming to be lost? the piece of shit eventually found it and wanted to charge me $25 for a $10 journey, i only paid him after a 10 minute dispute because he wouldn't let me out of the cab and the regulation sheet says the cabbie had the right to call the police for unpaid fares, but i did make sure i gave him $25 worth of abuse and threats of physical violence.

some might say i had a pathological problem with taxi drivers but i lean towards the 'fuck those cunts, sustained abuse is the very least they deserve' school of thought.

Did he not have a GPS unit in his cab? Most of them do nowadays.

Sounds like you have some issues my friend.

Ludo wrote:

Did he not have a GPS unit in his cab? Most of them do nowadays.

yeah, lying cunt claimed to be unable to program it without a precise zip code though.

that's bye the bye though. he was a brooklyn local, he knew how to find 38th street, there's a fucking freeway exit on 38th street for fucks sake.

I never like to take taxis. Just feel like they take roundabout ways to get places which when I'm actually sober and know exactly how to get where I'm going I take notice. They do have GPS nowadays though

Sounds like he was bullshitting you. All GPS units now allow you to pick a location by street name and city or by zip code. The settings are tied into one another.

i never doubted for a second he was bullshitting me.

seriously, these guys are all the same no matter where you go in the world.

Even so is it really worth getting into a fight over ? not like the guy over charged by $100.

Life is way too short to argue with every single taxi driver.

Ali wrote:

Even so is it really worth getting into a fight over ? not like the guy over charged by $100.

Life is way too short to argue with every single taxi driver.

bollocks, they're cunts.

anyway, i don't argue with every taxi driver, just most of them.

The taxi drivers I had in Mexico got from point A to point B, ASAP. Those guys didn't fuck around. I remember one had a broken speedometer and was just flying everywhere, cutting people off. It wasn't possible to get to where we were going any faster.
But the cabbies I had in Miami and Dallas were completely different. They took their sweet ass time and racked up the charges.

I love it when the hotel has a shuttle. I went to a Mavs-Celtics game the year Boston won it all. The hotel I stayed out dropped us off infront of the stadium, so close that regular traffic wasn't allowed in the area. Then we got shit faced at the game and the shuttle picked us up right up front when the game was over. Pretty sweet.

Yeah I remember a taxi drive from TJ to Rosarito Beach being the most scary car ride of my life. Guy was crazy, extreme suicide.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Yeah I remember a taxi drive from TJ to Rosarito Beach being the most scary car ride of my life. Guy was crazy, extreme suicide.

I wasn't scared for my life but I was concerned about the lives of others. Zooming inches from people on the street and guys on scooters. Mexican cab driver no give a fuck.

This dude was making formula 1 passes on the freeway, on the sidewalk, squealing around turns. I think he hit a dog, couldn't tell, we were going to fast around the corner to see back.