Confused passengers

Indecisive passengers are a real aggravation, I'm on break now, and I actually have a legal parking spot.

Yesterday some old lady got in at Lexington and 57th and told me to go to the Post office,

"Do you know where the post office is?" she asked.

"Yes, if you mean the main one, I know where the main post office is," I say.

"No there is one right here," she was twisting and turning her head every which way. "It is right down the street."

"Ohhh, yeah I know the one, there is one on 45th street and Lex," I reply.

"No, no, its very close, its on 53rd street, well I could have sworn, it is right on 3rd avenue," She says.

"But we're on Lexington avenue," oh no, I think this lady seems to have Alzheimer’s.

"Well it should be right here. It’s this big building with columns on it.... and it.. oh.. It." she fades off into randomness, and unimportant notes about what a post office looks like.

We are at 53rd street, and after pulling over and looking back to try to jog her memory, I look down east and can see all the way to 3rd Avenue. Sure enough I see the building where postal workers hang out, and it says United States Post Office, so we agree that it’s there.

“Just make a left,” she says.

“I can’t, I have to take the next street down.” Most of the Manhattan streets are only one-way streets.

The fare is 3.70. And the time this ride took was 5 minutes, for 6 blocks.

"Thank you for putting up with me" she pays me 5 whole dollars, golly, my lucky day.

She also commented routinely that we were going to fast, whenever we started to move.

-----

This guy today, picked him up at Bleeker and Broadway and he says Varick and Van Dam. Not sure where it is but I’d take Houston to Varick, or traffic is so light I'll take Prince to Varick, and find Van Dam.

Guy- "On second thought, make that Spring and Hudson."

I just passed Prince and Broadway, how do I go to Spring and Hudson? Every damn street stops at Varick, what the f- goes to Hudson? And where the f- is Van Dam anyway? See to get to Hudson I could take Prince possibly, but Hudson runs north, and Van Dam is definitely south by a few blocks. Broome is south, but only goes to Varick. Canal seems too far.

Guy- "Do you know where you’re going?"

Me- "Well I was going to go to prince to Varick and I’d find Van Dam, but now I don't know where I’m going. Nothing goes to Hudson." I’m looking at my torn up page of Downtown Manhattan. "I'm gonna try Broome, but I'm pretty sure it goes to Varick and not Hudson."

Guy (pondering)- “Just take me to Van Dam and Varick"

Jiminy Christmas! if he didn't f-ing change his mind in the first place we wouldn't be going in little squares circles and triangles!!!

Guy- “Just take a side street"

Me- "Where?"

everything is a side street motherheffer!

Guy- "Just take this left."

Me- "LEFT?"

Guy- "Left."

Me- "Why?"

Guy- “To get to Van Dam."

Me- "Van Dam is north of here, and we're going south, also we are going to the Holland tunnel."

Guy- "Varick is south of the tunnel right? And Van Dam is south of the tunnel."

Me- "No, Varick is east of the tunnel. That is the tunnel right there see, we're at the tunnel, and Van Dam is 3, no 4, 5 blocks north of here. I’m’ a have ta get'cha right over there now."

I hang a left on Spring, up 6th-

Guy- "Yeah, we should be here any minute, it should be here."

huh you don't say, And we arrive.

What could possibly be worse?

Well I could come up with a bunch of scenarios that could be worse. Anyway, the taxi was towed in front of where I lived yesterday. Outragous! well it was illegally parked. I somehow thought that since everyone parked illegally there and put their B.S. police and fire department badges on the dash, I could park for 2 hours.

I come back after a nap and a breakfast and it's gone. I call the garage to get the plate number. Then I call 311 which directs me to the dmv violations bureau which is all electronic, and they don't have the plate on file, So I call 311 again to get the number of the local police precinct. The precinct was very helpful, giving me the number of the marshall and the tow lot. The marshall never picked up, but the tow lot did, and they had the car too; they needed license and registration. Registration! but i'm a taxi, do we have that? So I had to go to the garage to pick that up.

I took a cab to the subway. The cab was really friendly and he shut off the meter a block early, but I gave him 6 bucks when it was 3.70 anyway. then 'D' at the garage was nice enough to drive me to the lot with the papers. after about 20 minutes, I got the car back, paying 185 dollars in cash, and I still have a 65 dollar ticket to pay. The garage then did me a second favor and allowed me to drive for another 2 hours, and so I picked up 65 dollars from that. so in total I may have lost 40 dollars yesterday... Sonofa!

My opinion on the mayor's congestion pricing plan

The mayor has introduced a plan to charge 8 dollars for motor vehicles entering Manhattan below 86th street, and 25 dollars for commercial vehicles, Taxis will be exempt.

Surprisingly I think it's a great idea. The traffic during the hours which cars would be charged gets horrible, absolutely horrible. Some New Yorkers seem totally oblivious to the world around them with their Hummers, Escalades, and okay fine, my taxi really sucks too.

The conservative argument put up by some politicians in the outer boroughs, is that this is another way to tax the poor.

Question:

If you are poor WHY ARE YOU DRIVING TO WORK?

Costs of driving to Manhattan are already:

Parking: around 15 to 30 dollars (parking spaces are free, but to obtain them, one must do a lot of praying, once the spot is obtained, cars are often dented and scratched)
Tolls: between nothing and 9 dollars

Or you could take Mass transit, it's alot cheaper and more reliable. Click here for a nice pie chart (13 billion dollars) and note facts below the nice pie.

By the way, soon taxis will be more green and economical. The city already has a few Toyota Prius', some hybrid camrys, hybrid Highlanders, a bunch of hybrid Ford Escapes, one Lexus RX 400h (the h is for hybrid), and possibly a Honda Civic hybrid too, the electric Pt Cruiser is bogus, I never saw it. All medalions currently and in the future are only offered for greener cars or handicapped access vehicles. I heard that a hybrid Ford Escape eats less than half the gas of a Ford Crown Vic. in a day, and I heard a Civic hybrid or a Prius eats a quarter of what the Crown Vic. drinks.

weekend of 4/21-22

Click to enlarge

Times Square District, Manhattan

Midtown, Manhattan

Astoria, Queens

Battery Park, Manhattan

Times Square, Manhattan

Upper East Side, Manhattan

Downtown, Manhattan

Midtown, Manhattan

Midtown, Manhattan

Long Island City, Queens

When the day is done

After a long day there is nothing like flipping the “off duty” switch. Depending on traffic by the bridges out of Manhattan, or to the airports, I flip the switch early.

“That’s it,” I tell myself, “No more rides. Maybe just one more.” We are allowed discriminate our rides once the off duty light is on to take people that are going in our direction. Really it is best to get rides that are quick. As my shift comes close to the end I go into a survival mode immediately suggesting streets with the least traffic to my passengers.

Then I lock the doors, and just for those 30 to 60 minutes it is my personal car. I try to stay in the middle lanes, blast the most obnoxious music I can find, and sometimes, I even turn the sound on in the rear, the bass and treble bounce around the divided cabin. The Sun is at its brightest now, and 5 hands rise at every block calling for me, the one cab without a customer. But I made my money, and put in as much time as I could.

Sometimes, when it is all done I just sit in traffic reveling in the time cushion I have given myself. For once it feels great to sit in traffic, no more worries about other people’s schedules. Or if I’m running late, I can go as many blocks out of the ‘most direct’ route as I so choose. After 12 hours I’m free of the restrictions of a meter.

Sunday 4/15

Far West Side, Manhattan

Harlem, Manhattan

Harlem, Manhattan

Midtown, Manhattan

Long Island City, Queens

Sunnyside, Queens

saturday 4/14

Airport fare:
The Sheraton Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport, through the Queens Midtown Tunnel, not worth it, 23.70 plus 4.00 for the toll, which he pays. He gave me 30, and I gave him 2 back, so basically he didn’t tip. Why? He’s French that’s why. He was very friendly and comfortable during the ride.

Not from around here:
Three Guys that never took a New York taxi before got in. Two of three didn’t want to do it. They asked not to be ripped off. I took them from Greenwich Village to Penn Station. I already made a left on Waverly Place from 6th avenue, where they hailed me. Usually when being hailed by someone, I quickly negotiate with him or her through hand gestures to decide which street on that corner to pick up. But they didn’t really understand me, and I didn’t really understand them, so we had to go up 8th Avenue rather than 6th. I took Christopher Street, to West 4th Street to Hudson up to the 8th avenue side of Penn Station. They were rowdy, it felt like I was on stage as a driver and they were heckling me, so I paid them no mind:

“Man I got a bad feeling about this.”

“Wow, look at that it already started at 250.”

“Wow, man that thing just keeps ticking away. Its already 5 bucks and we’ve gone a block.” –We drove around 14 blocks at that point.

“Holy crap the meter just went up, did you see that, it just went up and we weren’t even moving. Is this by time, or by distance?”

Me-“That’s just how it works.”- I really didn’t feel like describing the whole pricing structure, it’s on the door. Besides If I was quizzed on how the meter charges, I might not pass. I turn on the meter, and it works, that’s all I need to know.

I was noticing the cab to my right; it was a nice visual distraction. There were three women in the back and one of them was putting her heels up on the partition. Honestly I was looking because it seemed disrespectful to me to put one’s feet up that close to the driver. My male trio seemed to notice the other cab as well. The same one who was overwhelmed by every increment of 40 cents on the meter wanted to be noticed by the women. He rolled down the window and shouted something like, “hey”, or “ahhh”. As is my job, I found myself in a fast moving lane when the light changed, and the other taxi was 5 cars behind.

“Hey why did you pass them?”- I didn’t respond since it was all a joke to me, and I don’t think his friends were illogical enough to take him seriously either. And we arrived at Penn Station,

"Woah, man it just jumped up another 50 cents!"

Me- "That's the nightly surcharge, there is a surcharge of 50 cents at night."

surprisingly they tipped really well, the fare was 6.20, total paid: 9 bucks. The crazy one (evidently) then raced off after a random taxi cab and looked in the rear window, alas it wasn't the women. Too bad, he really had a chance.

Eves-dropping:
An older woman and her middle aged daughter got in. This was a long trip from Battery Park City to 86th Street and 5th Avenue; it was around 20 bucks. The older mentioned how she didn’t like talking to them whoever they were,

“All they talk about is what they are doing. That’s no conversation at all.”

This comment set off some journey of thoughts in my head. What is good conversation? And if you were to analyze every conversation, would you converse at all? But I do agree, people should stop thinking of themselves when talking, isn’t that what talking is all about?

Then they both talked about which colleges certain family members were going to, Yale, but not Harvard, at least it’s closer to the city, and also Brown. But then the older spoke of a new building going up in her neighborhood. The lobby was see through, whatever that means. She saw a man with two dogs bigger than the man himself, and so she told him she felt sorry for the dogs,

“How can dogs that big live in this city?” she asked.

“Don’t feel sorry for them,” he said. “We have two apartments, one is for the dogs.“

“It is beyond comprehension how much money some people in New York have,” she exclaimed in the cab. She went on to talk about how some of the son’s, friends went to the Bahamas with a credit card from the parents to spend unlimited amounts on. Yet the son has a small place in Brooklyn smaller than the dogs' apartment they figured.

Pictures from that shift:

Astoria, Queens

Sunnyside, Queens

Fort Greene, Brooklyn

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

fare is fair

There was one more fare I forgot to mention, I picked him up at the parking garage by the Lincoln Tunnel. Before getting in he motioned towards his oral smoking thingy, I wasn’t sure if it was a cigarette so I was more inclined to say no. He put it out got in and wanted to go to White Street and West Broadway. I was pretty sure of where I was going and I got there quick, but when I got to Franklin Street and West Broadway, I just wasn’t sure where White was. The map showed all the streets intersecting, non taxi drivers just have no idea how annoying it is looking at maps that do not depict the streets clearly enough. Anyway I figured White was just one block north, so I offered to drive around the block with the meter off to be sure. Sure enough it was right there. The total came to 12.20, something like that, and he gave me a 20 and told me to add 2, my Achilles heel, I can’t do math. Lets see 1220 plus 2 is 14.20, so that’s fifteen. I hand him over fifteen.

“Man, I think your not operating so good, I think it’s too late for you. I’m gonna do you a favor okay.”

He gives me the 10 back.

“Are you sure that’s right?” I ask.

“Yeah I’m sure”

Airports and Ocean Liners

JFK Airport, Queens

Sunnyside, Queens


1 0f 3, The Ocean Liner Pier, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan

2 of 3

3 of 3


Midtown, Manhattan

Sunnyside, Queens

Battery Park City, Manhattan

mini update, and a link.

so i'm off this weekend. I am worried also that I may soon get a note from the Department of Motor Vehicles, about a hearing to suspend my driver's license. So far everything's fine, but I'm nervous. I'll update more on all the tickets in a later post.

I just went off to Boston to see some of my fellow senior's shows where I attended school and finished last year. I had great food, and many a drink. Then I got rides with friends down to the middle of Connecticut to see an old high school friend and celebrate his first daughter's first birthday. Now I'm off to Grandmother's house for Easter. Also I went to Pensylvania for a family Passover get together. My week's been full. Oh i gotta go now

Yellow cab turns 100, at Moleskinecity.com

this link references taxi appreciation week here in nyc. It is their statement of intent i appreciate more; to support urban free thinking.

please do check out the blog about the bike messengers and see the crazy youtube videos:

Getting the message through, at Moleskinecity.com

You Tube videos:
Bike messengers are on crack, by Lucas Brunell
Yak the messenger, by Louis Shwartzberg

Why do I post about bike messengers? They are just another part of the city and I have massive respect for them. Countless bicyclists get killed every year in NYC. We do have bike lanes but the lanes are too small. Double parked cars, pedestrians, and buses pose as threats to their exhistance. I used to ride up the avenues in my late teen years, but now that I drive a taxi, I realize how every move a biker makes is only as good as the moves a driver of an automobile makes to avoid them.

Sunrise at Pathmark

Long Island City, Queens

I took someone out to pretty far Jackson Heights, 75th street. This Queens combo of a Pathmark (our local supermarket) and a Dunkin Donuts, provides a nice 24 hour stopping place during odd hours. It is only about a mile from the 59th Street Bridge. I needed to use the bathroom, by the time I was ready to leave, the sun was coming up.

Times Square, Manhattan

cockadoodledoo?

Park Slope / Fort Green, Brooklyn

I'm gonna give this a try, I'm going to post what I remember from around the time of certain photographs. This picture was taken on my Saturday shift, AKA Friday night. I picked up two in the East Village. Some taxis wait at a bar with a neon rooster in the window. So two get in and ask for Park Slope, sure I say. See what bothered me though is that they were making out the whole way there, I have no problem with this, but who knows what else they were doing. One spoke to the other in a weird voice not his own, and also I heard a belt being un-buckled. I really don't appreciate when people change in my taxi. But so long as no coffee is spilled we're all right. and nobody shouted either. I'm sure they were good roosters.

This Particular corner is pretty much where Brooklyn's 5th Avenue intersects with Flatbush Avenue. A not so exciting mall or shopping center almost disapears in the darkness a few blocks north in the background. It was all so captivating that I stayed and shot this through the windsheild after the light turned green. I was already empty and heading back to Flatbush Ave to the Manhattan Bridge.

Another Day another... quarter??

This weekend seemed slower than the past few. This season so far has been just splendid. I’m starting a somewhat regular routine of getting the cab between 2 and 3:30 in the morning and then I head down to the Lower-East Side. Ideally I then shuffle between the Lower-East side, the East Village, and the Meatpacking District. Sometimes it seems like all of New York is partying in these three neighborhoods. If I get anywhere else I tend to race back to these three hot spots.

Once 430 to 5am rolls around, I think about these two locations, Lexington Ave and 46th Street, and 28th Street between 10th and 11th Ave. These two places have clubs that stay busy till’ 5am, but I don’t feel great about picking up especially at the far west side 28th street area. I was never big on clubs, I hate them really, I don’t like the types that go there. Everyone is looking to be somebody different in my opinion, different from who they truly are. The big spender’s are probably looking for jobs, The nicely dressed are cocaine fiends from Queens, and all the hottest couples might just be acting out one of their various relationships. It’s a very cynical view, and probably the reality is better than I portray it, but I feel that there is something shady about the people who go there, the management of these scenes, and the act that everyone involves themselves with when attending the plastic galla that is, fake New York. Bottom line, I don’t like taking people out to queens from the far west side, nor the belly of Brooklyn, further more I’d appreciate it if your idea of a good time wasn’t touching other people’s fun zones. I mean really, you live in New York, can’t you just be happy that lots of hot women live here, and you know, leave them alone?

28th Street between 10th and 11th Ave, Manhattan

So this Friday night A.K.A. Saturday morning, wasn’t so hip. I got a fare out to Bushwick Brooklyn and as I crawled along deeper down the avenue I got stuck at several red lights behind what else, The Toyota Corolla. No biggie I guess, It only took at most 5 minutes of my time, but when I dropped them off, I rounded down the total from 16.20, to 16, and the shmucks didn’t tip! Hey, but it was early in the night, or day, and I shot up to catch some more pre-dawn madness. I dropped a fare from the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, there is a very cool bar there, to the Christopher Street Path train station, 8.20, she made it 10. I picked up some people who asked to be taken to the other path train station at 9th Street before they got in, I feel sorry for those who feel they need to ask permission to ride in the cab, there a lot of very paranoid racist drivers out there who only stop for whites, seriously in 2007. So after waiting at a light at Greenwich for longer than I liked, I then shot around the corner hooked a quick right at the next yellow, and cruised east on 10th, they got out at West 4th, he gave me a dollar and some change, and he told me that he was not in the right place and some people had it out for him, I saved him some trouble, and he didn’t wanna be part of it. Ahh so be it, he paid me 2 dollars and change and the meter read 3.80. How can I be so tolerant you ask? The ride recorded on the receipt took 1 minute. I am a firm believer in karma. Even though I don’t really believe that he was in any trouble, but why then would you go from one station to the next? He had to be feeling that way, but then if so, was my fare before them in trouble? Pshh, maybe he knew some people that didn’t like him, hey, maybe he, I dunno, owed them money, since he doesn’t seem to have any.

So the morning wasn’t going so well, I seemed to be getting the cheapskates, a woman who’d rather take the train to Jersey then ride a cab, understandable, and a 20 minute ride to Brooklyn with no tip and an underpayment, make that two underpayments. Then my luck got better as I got a guy from the East Village to the West Village, and then right on the drop I got another ride all the way to Amsterdam and 108th Street. That was 4.60 or so, and then 16.40 I think. They both tipped about 20% I believe, which is a common tip and one I prefer. It’s not so cool if you ride for 15 bucks or more and tip a dollar, not cool. Also If your from “The Village,” you don’t call it, “The Village.” I grow fonder of you, when you specify East or West. Where do you live, Salem, motherfu..dger?

I suppose this blog is long enough, for fun sake you might want to look on google maps to reference all my locations. Plenty more soon-

Oh hey while I'm on my negative comment streak. You rich folks in the Upper-East, and the Upper-West Sides, You Park Avenue Schmucks, I don't cruise your neighborhoods, cause I don't like your tips with change, and I don't like it when you ask for change back. Everyone else in New York is struggling to survive, yet they still have time to endulge in overpriced affairs and they don't worry about their change. The cost of living is up my friends.

NEW YORK NEW YOOOORRK, IT'S A HELL OF A - TOOWWWWWWN!