Thursday, March 22, 2007

Real CabDrivers

Apparently drive pink cabs. On the heels of my blog about taxi cab colors, I saw a pink cab today. Not the bright, flurescent pink that was on my walls as a kid, but a darker, somewhat less girlish pink.

But pink nevertheless.

And yes, a male driver.

I loved it! Men - stand up for your right to drive pink!

Monday, March 19, 2007

Discriminating Driver

Who is worthy of riding in a cab? I hailed a cab on upper Connecticut avenue last week and he stopped almost immediately for a white guy with a suitcase to see if he was going the same way. Wasn't. So we kept going. Some blocks later, we were in slow traffic as a Hispanic man waved for the cab. The driver didn't seem to see him, so I (always ok about sharing) pointed him out. "not good" or something like that was the driver's response.

A few blocks past that, a white woman flagging a cab got him to cross two lanes of traffic to see where she was going.

I know, I know, it always pays to be white. But really!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Cab Diversity - What a Rainbow of Colors Out There!

Aha, gotcha! You thought I was going to be blogging on all the different drivers. But no, this blog is all about taxi cab colors. Yellow is taxi cab color. I don't know who decided or when (taxi historian, line 1!). But it's yellow all over the US.

Not here. It's yellow. And black. And red, white, tan, green, mauve, taupe, teal, and on and on and on. DC is a veritable 64 box of crayolas in cab colors.

I like the blue and teal cabs myself. But not the baby blue ones (UCC), that's just a silly color.

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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Calling Cabs?

Ok, I'll bite. Why do all the cabs in this city have their phone numbers painted on the side of the cab? I can see it for companies that have lots of cabs - yellow & diamond, but for cabs that are one-guy operations, why a phone number?

Is it because as I'm standing by the side of a road and no cabs are around I'm going to remember the phone number for Alike Zahkewr's cab and he'll come speeding over when I call?

Mad Cabbie - help us out here. Is this a law? tradition? Or just weirdness?

Friday, March 02, 2007

From Outside the Cab

Couple of interesting cab interactions I've viewed in the past couple of days.

First - two cabs, one passenger. One guy out on Mass. Ave late at night trying to hail a cab. A cab going in the opposite direction honked to indicate he was coming over to get him. But as he waited to make his U-turn, another cab came along. The first one pulled right up behind the interlopper, honking and shouting, "I've got this one." The poor guy seemed to be getting into the first cab, and he just stopped, looking at them both. The 2nd cabbie didn't say anything I could hear. The guy finally got into the first cab and it drove off, the 2nd cab following them honking.

Which brings us to second cab interaction sighting.

Second - a cab making a turn into a lane with people in the crosswalk. Nothing cabs don't do on any given day, but this time, we weren't the only ones watching from across the street. So was a DC cop car. It took off after the guy and stopped him. Not sure if there was anyone in the cab. We didn't wait around to see if the driver got a ticket or hauled off :).