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Blanketing opinions that I'll probably regret soon.
Friday, December 09, 2005
I got in an argument with a cab driver tonight.
I've taken cabs in countries all over the world. I find cabbies to be a good lot---never had a problem with them. Until tonight. We got to my place and he didn't have enough change. I gave him a $20 bill and he scrounged around in his center console for some pennies encrusted in pubic hair for like 10 mintues---no, 15---before I got fed up. All the years that I've overpaid DC cab drivers came rushing forward. I think I said something like, "You fucks are overpaid anyway. Don't give yourself that tip. In New York this would've cost five dollars. DC is the only place that it costs two people eleven bucks to go less than a mile." Ok, those weren't my exact words, but I do remember the rantlet ending with something to the effect of him taking his measly paycheck to the bank and getting some change to pay his customers. It felt so good when I pointed to his filthy candy-wrapper-and-penny-stuffed center console and said, "You call yourself a professional?".
It got really ugly. Not violent-type ugly, but ugly in the sense that I felt like one of the dick-stick lawyers that I deal with daily. And what a strange feeling. It was a mixture of being pissed off and feeling guilty about it, and feeling like I had done a good deed for my city.
Our cab drivers have been stealing money from us for too long in the form of jacked-up fares. So even though they're jacked-up, people are supposed to lie down and take it because cab drivers are proletarian. Fuck all that. It's about time a dickhole like me gave them a piece of his mind.
It got really ugly. Not violent-type ugly, but ugly in the sense that I felt like one of the dick-stick lawyers that I deal with daily. And what a strange feeling. It was a mixture of being pissed off and feeling guilty about it, and feeling like I had done a good deed for my city.
Our cab drivers have been stealing money from us for too long in the form of jacked-up fares. So even though they're jacked-up, people are supposed to lie down and take it because cab drivers are proletarian. Fuck all that. It's about time a dickhole like me gave them a piece of his mind.
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If I were only so lucky to be able to get a cab to rip me off, next time you hop in a cab try getting them to take you 14th and Mass SOUTH EAST. You will always find that they were on their way home or some other excuse. One time I refused to leave the cab and he said he would call the police. As it were a police car passed I flagged him down explained the situation, figuring I would at least get a ride home. No such luck, the officer said the cabby said he was on his way home and even when I pressed the fact that he stopped and let me get into his cab it was for naught. This already after flagging down several cabs who were also "on their way home" Fuck cabbies walking is better for you anyway.
I've given people at work some shit before, and even if you're in the right, you still feel guilty for being a dick.
Don't worry about it, maybe he'll drop his tactic of not having change to get bigger tips in the future since he awoke the sleeping dragon.
Don't worry about it, maybe he'll drop his tactic of not having change to get bigger tips in the future since he awoke the sleeping dragon.
I forgot to mention that he forced me to give him a $2 tip because he didn't have enough change. So I think the total was like $13 for taking me less than 1 mile and waiting 15 minutes in the parked cab waiting for him to give me change.
It is weird about the SE thing with cabbies. I can get out of SE, but it's hard to get them to take me back.
All the anger in the world is probably not enough for him to stop pulling that no change thing. People will do anything for a buck.
Wish they had a recording of that though...the new DC reality tv show starring *you*. Now that would be comedy.
All the anger in the world is probably not enough for him to stop pulling that no change thing. People will do anything for a buck.
Wish they had a recording of that though...the new DC reality tv show starring *you*. Now that would be comedy.
From the Washingtonian last December:
Over six months, in interviews and independent testing, The Washingtonian discovered many cases in which cabbies overcharged, endangered, or mistreated passengers. We discovered shoddy record keeping and lax oversight as well as reports of corruption and misconduct at the agency that oversees taxis, limos, tour buses, and private ambulances. In tests, we discovered that riders were being overcharged 41 percent of the time. In reviewing records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, we learned just how little DC was doing to prevent taxicab abuse.
AMONG THE FINDINGS:
A majority of DC's taxicabs fail the required safety and emissions inspections.
Passenger complaints are often ignored, and those that result in a judgment against the driver are rarely enforced.
Convicted criminals are getting licenses to drive cabs.
How did the District's taxi system get this way?
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Over six months, in interviews and independent testing, The Washingtonian discovered many cases in which cabbies overcharged, endangered, or mistreated passengers. We discovered shoddy record keeping and lax oversight as well as reports of corruption and misconduct at the agency that oversees taxis, limos, tour buses, and private ambulances. In tests, we discovered that riders were being overcharged 41 percent of the time. In reviewing records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, we learned just how little DC was doing to prevent taxicab abuse.
AMONG THE FINDINGS:
A majority of DC's taxicabs fail the required safety and emissions inspections.
Passenger complaints are often ignored, and those that result in a judgment against the driver are rarely enforced.
Convicted criminals are getting licenses to drive cabs.
How did the District's taxi system get this way?
# posted by 
: 9:40 PM
: 9:40 PM<< Home
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