What are your expiriences with cab drivers?

[deleted]

I lived in NYC from 2000-2002. I took a cab with my wife in the summer of 2001. The cabbie was an Arab gentleman who asked us if we had seen the Twin Towers. I said yes, but that we'd never been inside. He replied (in imperfect English) "Go see them now, because they will fall down." I thought that he was referring to their height, until he said "They tried before and they will try again. They will fall down." We left the cab, and I mentioned to my wife that I thought he was talking about the WTC bombings in 1993, but we both wrote it off. My wife reminded me of that cab ride on the afternoon of September 11th. Pretty crazy.

First of all, I was the driver, not a passenger-- did this for four years. An interesting but exhausting job. Some people treat you like a lowlife, others open their hearts to you like you were a shrink or some kind of therapist. They say "I'll bet you've heard it all," and then feel compelled to tell you whatever they think is intriguing (but usually just outrageous) about themselves.

In my experience, it's the passengers who tend to motormouth. Some feel uneasy with the driver's silence and try to draw him out, hear all his wild "taxicab stories." Others want a bit of a tour guide, and of course some expect you to take you to interesting and illicit places only a cabbie knows about, after-hours clubs, illegal gambling, gay bars-- and of course they assume you're a pimp of some sort.

Most interesting thing that happened to me was a seeing-eye dogfight, right in my cab. I was sent on a call to haul a blind man with a dog, and given a pickup along the way-- who also happened to be a blind man with a dog. One sat in front with the dog at his feet, but it got claustrophobic and jumped up on the seat right next to me, then the two dogs lurched at each other. The fight was brief, shocking at first and then kind of funny.

Both men said their dogs had never fought with other seeing-eye dogs-- maybe it was something about being in a cab. Brings out the worst in a lot of people too.

I rarely take cabs, and this is mostly because I live in a city where other public transportation is more acceptable and far cheaper. One night I was at a club with some friends and the train and subway lines had been shut down because it was past 2 am. Taking a bus in this part of town at night was seedy, so we opted for a cab.

What we got was a very tired Puerto Rican man who wanted to be called Speedy Gonzalez. This should've tipped us off. He started zooming down I-95 while nodding off to sleep. It was so scary, one of my friends actually began crying next to me. He kept turning the music up and down to wake himself up but was really just annoying us and scaring us. By the time we reached my friend's house he turned around, looked at us intently and said, "Do you believe in God?"

Seriously, I thought he was going to kill us or something. When my friend uttered a quick yes before trying to run out the door he said, "Oh good, because if everyone else hates you, at least God loves you."

Uh, thanks? That was interesting and heart attack inducing.

Usually trying to take you the long way round!

Its that man again!!