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I live in the lovely city of philadelphia. many people bash it, and are right to do so on some area's, but I love this city... it has it's problems though. one being, TAXI'S! I despise almost every one of them. for the following reasons
lines don't matter
riding my bike, walking or driving my car, I see it all the time. a taxi driver going in and out of traffic, cruising on the lines, or in the bike lane. apparently they ignore every line of the road and only dedicate the 2 brain cells they may have towards getting from point A to point B. everytime I ride my bike I tighten up when i see a taxi ahead, beside or behind me. I know they don't care about bikes, or anyone for that matter, so I always have to watch myself when around them.
inching on the light... or gunning it on a red
crossing the road with a taxi on red is an interesting experience. taxi's apparently have no patience when it comes to a changing light. the light just turns red, so you know it will be red for a while... but they stop... then slowly inche over the box (the cross walk area of an intersection) while people are crossing. I almost got into a fight with one taxi driver when he almost hit my legs inching up when the intersection turned yellow (mind you i entered the cross walk while green). I slammed my hands on his hood, called him a very bad name, and told him to watch himself. he yelled at me in some other language and sped off, nearly hitting another taxi up ahead who was dropping off.
Sometimes they just go when all the lights are still red. every intersection has a few seconds of all red, so any cars in the intersection who entered on yellow can get out. this causes problems with cyclists, and pedestrians who are still crossing. but they don't care...
oh, you need to be dropped off here? screw those parking spaces, lets stop right in traffic
university city is a hot spot for taxi stops, especially on weekends. but it is also an area with more parking than most, and alot of fire lanes wide open and easy for drop offs. but taxis don't look ahead. when the passanger says stop, they just stop. regardless of who is behind them... OR IN THE BIKE LANE!, they will just stop without warning.
Parallel parking
for a job that requires you to drive every single day, they sure are terrible at parallel parking. at my work, there is a 3 spot taxi stop for a hotel. I see so many taxi drivers attempt to park, and sometimes take 5-10 minutes to do so, while blocking a whole lane of traffic. most of the time, they end up with 2 wheels on the sidewalk.
some don't even know where they are going
sometimes i need to take a taxi, when the trolly is out and its raining. sometimes i get a driver who has no idea where i want to go. i give him the intersection of a well known street and a numbered street (most of philly is grided, so its not hard) and they won't know... but ALL of the taxis have GPS systems in them now, yet I have never seen one use them. after i gave the guy the directions, i asked him why he didn't use the GPS. he told me "I don't know how".... what? either your bosses train terribly, or you just didn't care... but it's there for that reason! use it!i won't judge you, I just want to get home.
lines don't matter
riding my bike, walking or driving my car, I see it all the time. a taxi driver going in and out of traffic, cruising on the lines, or in the bike lane. apparently they ignore every line of the road and only dedicate the 2 brain cells they may have towards getting from point A to point B. everytime I ride my bike I tighten up when i see a taxi ahead, beside or behind me. I know they don't care about bikes, or anyone for that matter, so I always have to watch myself when around them.
inching on the light... or gunning it on a red
crossing the road with a taxi on red is an interesting experience. taxi's apparently have no patience when it comes to a changing light. the light just turns red, so you know it will be red for a while... but they stop... then slowly inche over the box (the cross walk area of an intersection) while people are crossing. I almost got into a fight with one taxi driver when he almost hit my legs inching up when the intersection turned yellow (mind you i entered the cross walk while green). I slammed my hands on his hood, called him a very bad name, and told him to watch himself. he yelled at me in some other language and sped off, nearly hitting another taxi up ahead who was dropping off.
Sometimes they just go when all the lights are still red. every intersection has a few seconds of all red, so any cars in the intersection who entered on yellow can get out. this causes problems with cyclists, and pedestrians who are still crossing. but they don't care...
oh, you need to be dropped off here? screw those parking spaces, lets stop right in traffic
university city is a hot spot for taxi stops, especially on weekends. but it is also an area with more parking than most, and alot of fire lanes wide open and easy for drop offs. but taxis don't look ahead. when the passanger says stop, they just stop. regardless of who is behind them... OR IN THE BIKE LANE!, they will just stop without warning.
Parallel parking
for a job that requires you to drive every single day, they sure are terrible at parallel parking. at my work, there is a 3 spot taxi stop for a hotel. I see so many taxi drivers attempt to park, and sometimes take 5-10 minutes to do so, while blocking a whole lane of traffic. most of the time, they end up with 2 wheels on the sidewalk.
some don't even know where they are going
sometimes i need to take a taxi, when the trolly is out and its raining. sometimes i get a driver who has no idea where i want to go. i give him the intersection of a well known street and a numbered street (most of philly is grided, so its not hard) and they won't know... but ALL of the taxis have GPS systems in them now, yet I have never seen one use them. after i gave the guy the directions, i asked him why he didn't use the GPS. he told me "I don't know how".... what? either your bosses train terribly, or you just didn't care... but it's there for that reason! use it!i won't judge you, I just want to get home.
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