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The accident that my customer didn't believe existed was so big it made the news:
I happened to be driving someone to Greenpoint an hour before the bitch from hell (see post below) got in and called me a liar for telling her the valuable information. Anyway the customer who I took to Brooklyn was a typical well natured guy. I heard not one complaint from him while we sat in a small line of cars passing by the smashed BMW X5. I was the last car they let pass before they closed off the whole entrance ramp to the expressway. The police were a little annoyed with me when I drove by real slow. But I was nervous, the car looked so bad I was afraid it might explode. I guess I saw too many Schwarzenegger movies.
Another side note, was that some kids in a Toyota 4Runner with PA plates were throwing pennies at me before we made it to the bridge. I took this in stride believe it or not, first because none of the pennies hit me in the head, second because despite throwing some pennies back in their direction without hitting their car, they didn't escalate the situation further. Hopefully when they saw the accident they sobered up.
It's always a good idea to have knowledge of what streets are closing, and when. For the best traffic overview click here: Gridlock Sam's Daily News Traffic Page, especially on weekends, especially today.
Ask 50 cabbies what they would rather drive, hybrid or Crown Victoria, and at least 20 if not more, will tell you they'd prefer less gas consumption. I say once we go green, we'll never go back, I know it's not quite so catchy but it's the truth. The Metropolitan Taxi Board of Trade just won a preliminary injunction against Mayor Bloomberg's green taxi agenda. What really rubs me the wrong way, is that we cabbies have been mis-represented. The MTBOT doesn't represent all New York taxi drivers. Quite the contrary, it mostly represents taxi owners, most of whom lease their cabs to drivers and thus do not have to pay for gas themselves. The reason the judge halted the green taxi fleet plan was not because of safety issues, or durability concerns. Rather, the judge halted further greening of our taxis because only federal government and not local government, has "the right to set fuel efficiency standards."-NYTimes
To further prove my point I encourage you, the reader to survey 50 cabbies who already drive hybrids as taxis, if 90% don't say they are glad they made the switch, well, I'll be surprised.
Click here for The New York Times article:
Before looking at the regular shift shots, I'd like to thank Bob who writes Taxitales, and Two Steps Back, for leaving me a link for a page with hundreds of pictures of old New York dating back more than a century ago, one guy on the Wired New York Forum posted all of them: New York in Black and White.
Some famous photographers names include Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, Weegee, Berenice Abbott, et-cetera, et-cetera. The images really lead me to compare and contrast the different layouts of city streets, how our grid has or hasn't evolved to our traffic conditions today. Before the automobile people were more dependent on the trolley , the subway, and el. The streets were narrower and more bridges, for example, the Brooklyn Bridge, would have train cars as well as horses and then horse-less carriages. The bus depot once looked like a large diner, and was adjacent to Penn Station. Penn Station of course is now just a basement in Madison Square Garden. The Port Authority Bus Terminal is now at least 8 times the size of the Greyhound Bus Terminal, and west of Times Square. It also appears that traffic got bad in the mid-30's. It is extremely interesting stuff.
I suppose there were plenty of negatives too, where are the women? And why did the men always wear work clothes and bowler hats? Different times, different times. Also all that horse-manure lying around couldn't have been healthy.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
TriBeCa
Midtown
Shots from 6/28/08
around the webs I found some real interesting stuff:
Maps: At 2nd Ave. Sagas, a blog dedicated towards New York City transit infrastructure, has a recent article about the Proposed Subway Expansion between 1929 and 1939. Back then, there were plans for an even larger subway system connecting every borough and covering more area all over the city with 100 miles of new track.
Films: At EV Grieve, a blog centering / lamenting on the East Village, a post: Story of a City, where the author has found some old films about the city from the late 40's. P.S. The whole idea that the largest subway system in the world may still have more potential to better serve its city, is extremely interesting to me, so interesting that I've wanted to create another blog to gather all the information I could about New York's transit infrastructure and map it out to see if we are really served better now than before. All I've got is a page with some links because I just haven't found the time. If you want to explore all the links I've got up on the blank page it's here: Tracing New York
Here are some taxi sites, articles, blog posts, et-cetera, worth looking at:
Around New York City there are many pushing for stronger support of public transportation and less support for the automobile. The thought being, if more funds were directed away from supporting the auto and towards rapid transit, then the city would have less traffic and even better accessibility. I found this quote about Sydney, Australia very encouraging for both mass transit buffs and taxi drivers alike: "Sydney is a continuously growing city. With restraint in car parking supply and rise in petrol prices people are less inclined to drive around the CBD. Add the growth of business activities and the strictly enforced control on the curbside and it is not hard to work out that taxi trips within the city are bound to grow." Also said of Sydney taxis: "Taxis make multiple journeys throughout the day, keeping up to 20 cars off the road per day. Running on LPG they are more environmentally friendly than most cars and are considered to be part of Sydney’s public transport system." -City Weekly, Sydney Australia After reading this, 3 points come to mind: - The taxicab in New York demands more respect. I wish more New Yorkers would view the taxicab as part of our diverse transit system. There was once a time where the same Transport Workers Union that supports the Metropolitan Transit Authority's subway and bus employees, came very close to representing the city's cab drivers.
- The taxis are becoming cleaner and greener.
- If the city established more restrictions on parking, and dare I say it, more expensive gas taxes, there would be less traffic, more space to pick-up and drop-off customers, and a higher demand for taxicabs.
Everybody loves to hate the cabbie, until they need to get home reliably and safely. The article speaks about the history of the taxi and pulls it in to contemporary Sydney. Throughout the article Adrian Neylan, author of this Cablog, is quoted several times.
Roy of Irish Taxi was featured in a short film Confession Box, quite a while ago, but it is worth coming back to. I can't say enough about Roy's site. He updates his blog like clockwork, and he takes the time to comment on many other taxiblogs of the world, which is always appreciated by fellow blog authors like me. He's got games too!
Taxi Tales, a taxiblog out of Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, United Kingdom, was the earliest source I had for Ford's Transit Connect being pushed to the states with a concept for its use as a NYC taxicab. He's posted on local various news and such: the sandwich boards are leaving, or have left by now. With that, a little piece of local culture has disappeared. The pink taxi in town has caused one local to complain to the authorities? Once he had someone pay with a jar of spare change, but the craziest, was when the snake got lost in his cab, that's a two part tale: here, and, here. Also, see his picture blog: Two Steps Back.
SoCal Cabbie out of San Diego, keeps a good updated blog when he can, Taxi Lingo, was an informative post about all the taxi talk referencing driving in the industry. This was interesting to me, because us New York yellow cabbies don't take radio dispatch calls, and thus our job is completely different.
Cabs Are For Kissing, a New York taxiblog from a driver who knows the city better than the back of his own hand. He may know you better than you know yourself. The professional cabbie gains a special intuition about people, and on occasion their little dogs too. Each and every post is quality. Psycho is a story that reminds us, no matter how much we think we got it figured out, we may still get a looney bird. And check in to his frequently updated shots at Pictures From A Taxi.
So how does a London cabby's life go? go to All In A Days Work, London and look no further. He dishes it all out, the condition of his car, how bad the wall at the train station's taxi rank wreaks of urine, and the family life.
Check on Dublin Taxi. Does this guy drive a Toyota Prius taxi!? Anyway, he'll give you the lowdown on what's up in Dublin. Famous Fat Dave: The Hungry Cabbie of New York, dishes out his blog with passion and charisma. How do you define the culture of the city? There may be no better way to describe such a smorgasbord of international diversity than to use your stomach. His broad knowledge of the whole metropolitan region is gained from asking every customer he can where the best, pizza for example, might be. He's recently purchased the last Checker Marathon ever made, an '82. He'll give you a tour of the city like no other. He says he rarely drives the actual yellow cab anymore, but shoot, would you?
The King of New York Hacks, gives you a peek at the absurd, and all the interesting things one sees when they set up behind the wheel for 12 hours. When the cabbie anticipates a day of work I'll bet they never expect to see, oh, I don't know, a man with a cat on his head!? Yeah I saw him too, but The King heard his words, " Cat on the head, yes that's right Cat on the head!". That cat dude must be an insomniac.
Read The Blank Top Chronicles. This guy isn't a driver, he's a dispatcher, with a damn popular site. These are the kind of jerks he deals with. How about a prime example of a fruitloop. People, I'm telling you, you need to explore this site deeply, you'll be laughing all day long!
Well that concludes this post of recommendations and over all kissassary, yeah I know its not a word...... yet.
It started only a month ago when Gilbert added me on Facebook (the social networking site for this generation of socially inept). I knew Gilbert long ago from Junior High School and so I figured it would be nice to see what this crazy kid was up to. It still boggles my mind that at 27 years of age, all those kids I knew throughout my public school education are now adults. In the span of 13 years we've all evolved or devolved into an assorted fabric of society.
Gilbert, like many of the more successful of my generation, spends his time behind a desk I assume, but like all who were raised in these NYC communities the career takes less priority over his dreams. A simple paycheck is not as important as: The International Rules, A blog he and two others work diligently on. If you're having problems with one of the common obstacles in life, be they your new overpriced non-functioning iphone, or if you for some reason forgot how to wipe your ass The International Rules will be there to remind you how to properly function. And bloggers, if you are looking for some good advice or just a laugh involving how to write a blog, that's how it is, or isn't done.
He writes a damn good blog, and neither he nor the co-authors take a vacation from writing it. Putting forth a solid effort with any mission is something that deserves an award, or some recognition. He aims to have a book published with his rules and lessons of 100, thusly keeping a vision and theme to the outstanding blog.
So I award thee, Gilbert and his cronies, the NYC taxi photo award of diligence and Kissassary.
That day my readership doubled compared to the previous days of the week. 
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