Woop Woop(That's the sound of the police)

Drove the past two nights and because of the hours I have not had a moment to write.  But I woke up with a pounding headache this morning and didn't go into the garage, so now I have a little time.  It wouldn't be so bad, but you need to get to the garage 2-3 hours before your(12 hour) shift if you want to secure a car for the night.  So between that, and commuting, I basically get home and pass right out only to wake up a few hours later and turn around to do it again.

Sunday night started out good.  I had two trips to Laguardia airport almost back to back.  Things seemed like they were going to keep moving, but pretty early on, it got quiet.  The one thing that kept me going for a while was the couple of outer-borough trips.  By midnight, I had been to every borough except Staten Island, but that never happens anyways. 

Brief rant:  I was driving through Times Square and almost ran over a toddler.  Tourists, if you insist on taking your small children to NYC, keep an eye on them at ALL times!  I know Times Square is exciting and distracting.  I get it.  But when little junior isn't being watched, he is running into the street.  Put a leash on him!  I do not need to scrape him off my grill because you couldn't be bothered to pay attention.  You were lucky this time, but next time you may not be.  Seriously.

Times Square-Where you should PAY ATTENTION to your surroundings!

Usually when it gets late, I start looping around the Village looking for a fare because those fares are usually longer.  As I was driving, I made a turn from East 4th street onto Ave B.  This is a turn I must have made a million times.  I noticed a cop car sitting on the corner so I made sure I came to a full stop, used my turn signal and did everything carefully.  But as soon as I turned the corner I see the lights flash behind me.  I pull over and the officers get out and come to my window to ask for my license and registration.  After calling me "sir" before seeing me, the officer seemed caught off guard.  As I was was about to hand him my license, he tells me there are no turns from that corner(a sign which i have NEVER noticed) but he was going to let me go because I am a girl.  I am still not sure if I should be flattered or offended, but either way, I thanked him politely and drove off.  After a slower night, I did NOT need a ticket.

After that incident, I was lucky enough to catch a fare waaaaay uptown.  And then after that as I was headed back downtown I caught one last fare even farther uptown.  And i had a blast on the last ride.  My passenger(Drew, if I remember correctly) was really nice and we had a great conversations the whole way up.  And here is the proof for your friends, Drew!  Girl taxi drivers DO exist!

Last night was a bit better.  I got a cab early and headed right to JFK.  I called the taxi hotline for the airport and they said they had no cabs and needed drivers.  So I got there and didn't have to wait at all.  Drove right up to get dispatched to a terminal.  Ended up with a shortie fare to Brooklyn so I headed right back to the airport where i got another fare, this time to Manhattan.  The two guys I picked up were from Paris and were very sweet.  There was a lot of traffic out of Queens, but they were patient and very pleasant.  When I did get them to their hotel, they gave me a tip in Euros(on top of what they gave me from their credit card)  I thought that was sweet, and now I can save the Euros for whenever I make it across the pond again.

The night was mostly busy.  It seemed like as soon as someone would get out, there would be another person waiting to get in.  It was also interesting.  I had several fun rides.  I picked up two ladies from Montreal who at first wanted to go to Nobu(hip sushi restaurant that lots of celebs frequent).  But after driving halfway there they rethought that and asked about the Meatpacking District and if that was hip and if there were cool places to eat there.  So they made the call that they wanted to go down there instead.  They also wanted to know if I knew where Madonna was hanging out that night or if i could take them to other places where movie stars hang out.  I told them I didn't have a clue where the cool kids hang, but they probably would have some luck around the Meatpacking District area.  They were satisfied with that and very giddy when they got out at 14th and 9th.

I picked up a group of young Brits who thought it was "amazeballs" that I stopped for them.  We got to talking and turns out they are over here working for the same soccer program another friend of mine from across the pond had done a little while back.  Also, one of them said they were going to be teaching soccer at a summer camp near the one I spend my summers at.  I thought that was really neat and told him to come up and party with us during the summer.  They were really nice.

Peaceful Park Avenue at about 3am.  The only other traffic on the street at that time is delivery trucks to the high end hotels.

As they were getting out, a very fabulous drag queen asked if I was available to take her to Brooklyn.  I told her to hop in and off we went.  She had actually just been to see Madonna, so now I knew where Madonna had been hanging out.  Too bad I didn't know earlier, I could have told the ladies from Montreal! 

As usual, as it got a little later, things slowed down a bit.  But since the night up until then had been hopping, I didn't mind so much.  I picked up a guy over near Manitobas on Ave B.  He was drunk, but polite.  I asked him where we were going and instead of giving me a destination he decided he would just navigate the whole way.  At one point we missed a turn and he told me we should have turned as if I would have known where we were going.  But again, he was drunk and just went with it.  We got to his destination finally.  As we were settling up he told me I was cute and gave me a $10 tip(on a $8 fare).  I know he was drunk, but what girl doesn't like to feel cute!  I told him thank you and he stumbled out of the cab.  With my ego boosted, I headed out to make a final round of the Village to catch that one last fare which I got with a ride all the way uptown.  That was a nice ride too.  I decided to call it a night after that and end on a high note.  Especially since it was now a fair bit later than I wanted to stay out.

Overall, there were ups and downs, but as any cab driver will tell you "no accident, no tickets, not bad".

Post Sandy Post

As most people know, last week NYC was hit by Hurricane Sandy.  It left a lot of the city and surrounding areas devastated and disabled.  I drove last night for the first time since the storm.  I have a pretty strict "I don't drive in storms" rule, so clearly, the night of the storm was out.  After that It took me a week to get back to driving between temporarily moving to my parents' house until my own place has utility service again, searching for a new car(ours got flooded and destroyed), and generally feeling displaced and depressed about the state of the city.  I'll be honest.  I was a little afraid to go into Manhattan with the power outages and eeriness of the whole situation.  And the gas situation put me off a little too.  I do realize, however, I missed out on amazing money with the subways not running and ride sharing allowed.  I could have made bank, but couldn't face everything.

Tile mosaic on the floor of the dispatch room at my garage.  Not related to anything, but i thought it was cool to share.

I finally made it back to the garage yesterday.  I got a car and headed right to JFK since their lot was pretty empty.  I didn't have to wait there lone before getting dispatched to Terminal 1.  I picked up a guy to go to Sutton Pl. which should have been easy, but holy crap.  There was a lot of traffic on the Van Wyck(like there always is), so I was just going to go a short way to Queens Blvd. to get to the 59th st Bridge.  This guy was so impatient, though he couldn't sit in traffic for more than a few minutes before trying to come up with alternate ideas.  This started as "OK, well just get me to a train station and I will go from there" to "oh, well, maybe you could get to Borough Hall(Brooklyn)" and I can take the train from there to finally "oh, why don't we go over the Brooklyn Bridge instead".  It's a flat rate, so all this extra navigation did nothing for me other than drive me up the wall, but at the end of the day, I was going to Manhattan afterwards anyway so after a certain point, I just gave up and went with the flow.  All told, we probably made it to his destination in the same amount of time that it would have taken if we had stuck with our original route, but we just took a crazy path to get there instead.  It was an adventure, and at least he was very nice about everything.  But, damn.

Once I made it into Manhattan, I managed to stay pretty busy.  Not really any long periods of searching for passengers.  And just when i would feel like it was going to be a long stretch, I would be at a red light and someone would hop in the cab.  So, that was good.  The main horror of the night was the traffic in the Midtown West area.  Because of the storm and flooding, all the tunnels except the Lincoln tunnel are closed.  And because there was some traffic horror in Jersey near the George Washington Bridge, the main way out of the city and into New Jersey was the Lincoln Tunnel.  This created massive delays in all directions around the entrance t the tunnel.  And of course I kept getting stuck in it because people kept wanting to go into that general area.

One of those situations was a young couple who needed to get pretty much right into the middle of the traffic jam.  And I did feel bad about sitting in traffic, but there really wasn't a way out of it.  I did finally see an opening and was able to zoom out of the jam.  I did have to go a few blocks out of the way, but it was either that or sit there for another half hour.  They seemed understanding though and didn't want to sit in the traffic any more than I did.  After all that it was a $24 fare.  Not only did they not tip me after all that(and after getting them OUT of that), they also didn't close their door all the way when they got out.  And so when I got out to close it, my favorite sweatshirt fell out and is somewhere lying on the curb near Port Authority.  I am gutted about the sweatshirt, and angry that it was because of these particular passengers.  Y'all owe me a new hoodie!

With the bad, there comes some good.  I was somewhere in the 50's when a guy hails me.  He asks me to take him to a particular hotel.  I didn't know where it was so before I turned on the meter, I looked it up on my phone.  It was literally around the corner from where we were and i told the guy that but he seemed a little lost and asked me to drive him anyways.  I had to loop around the block to get there, but two minutes later we were there and the $4 fare turned into $15 in my pocket and a very grateful passenger.  Really unexpected, but totally awesome.

The rest of the night was steady and I had a bunch of nice passengers.  Had one young guy from Florida who was debating the possibility of making the move to New York,  but not before his trip to Thailand which I was totally jealous of.  After passing through Times Square and hearing a big cheer from people watching the election coverage, I picked up a woman coming from a celebration.  She was very excited about the results.

I had two trips out to Queens.  One of these ended up being the last fare of my evening.  The guy had a lot to say about the election and the state of the country and what we needed to spend money on instead of bombs and a lot of other things as well.  I could tell that he had a few to drink and his train of thought didn't always make the connection, but it was certainly interesting.  And really, if it weren't for the interesting passengers like this guy, I wouldn't enjoy driving nearly as much as I do.  So to that gentleman, thank you for making my night interesting!

Of course, now that I managed to motivate myself into getting back behind the wheel again, another storm comes through the city.  So no driving for me tonight, but I'll try and get a cab tomorrow after this nor'easter passes through.

Trends

I drove both Monday and last night.  I've started noticing certain things happening over and over.  Monday, I kept having two people hail me and then me make different stops.  Then I kept making the same stops, pretty much.  It was weird.  I had never been down to Battery Park City in the cab before and then within the span of two nights, i had made several trips down there.  And thankfully every person who I had taken down there has been very kind in helping to direct me since I have limited knowledge of the area. 

I had a nice conversation on Monday with two ladies who I dropped off down there.  They seemed like they were having a lovely night on the town and we talked about how nice the weather was that evening, jazz music and life as a taxi driver.  It is rides like that that really make my night go by much quicker and more pleasantly!  And made up for the rude, entitled jerk I encountered earlier in the day.

The diner from "Seinfeld", passed by on Monday afternoon

I managed to get a cab really early on Monday, so I was uptown much earlier than I usually am.  I was driving up York when I see a woman hailing me from about a block away.  I first put on my right indicator, and then when I am a little closer, I put on my hazards.  I pull over a bit, but cannot go all the way to the curb since the woman who is hailing me is still in the street and if I were to try, I would hit her, and that is just bad for business.  Now, at this point, there are no other cars going in the same direction except one, right behind me.  Now despite my overly fair warning, and trying to move over, and the fact that the guy had two unobstructed lanes in which to proceed, he honks his horn, which he had modified to sound like a siren(note: NOT A COP).  He then pulls up beside me and rolls down his window and in the most condescending voice while rubbing the bridge of his nose gives me a "WHY cant you PEOPLE pull alllll the way over?  can you PLEASE explain this to me?"  I laughed in his face.  Seriously.  You had fair warning, no obstructed paths and I didn't want to run my customer over.  Do you THINK I maybe had a reason?  And seriously, WHY are you taking it personally.  Just drive around and stop thinking that the rest of NYC needs to do everything to accommodate you!  Seriously!  I have been lucky.  I haven't encountered many outrageous assholes.  But some people....

Monday night i was nearing the end of my shift and was hoping for that one last big fare.  And I was in Chinatown when a guy hails me and asks me to go to the Bronx.  I told him to hop in!  This was the fare I was waiting for.  He was really nice and we had a nice conversation all the way to the Bronx.  he even helped give me directions back to the city from where we were.  So we get to his destination and he is paying by credit card.  All of a sudden, my meter and terminal start acting up.  But eventually, he swipes the card and a receipt prints out.  It wasn't a signature receipt which i thought was odd for it being the amount it was, but i thought maybe that was the type of card or something.  I give him the receipt and he gets out.  And that's when i notice the meter has reset, like everything is paid, but my terminal is still saying waiting for the card.  So it was frozen.  I tried resetting it, and nothing happened.  Still said the same.  I tried pressing various buttons.  Eventually it went away, so I figured it went through.  I get back to my garage, and when you end your shift, the meter is supposed to print out a end of shift receipt.  It didn't.  I knew something was up with my system.  When I go to settle up at the garage, I see on my credit card details, the Bronx fare was missing.  I found out yesterday that I must have hit "no charge" when I was trying to  reset the system, so the credit card didn't go through and at this point, there isn't anything I can do.  Great.  So I gave a guy a free ride to the Bronx. 

Cars waiting to be dispatched at my garage

Last night, I started out at JFK.  They were so empty, they sent out a bulletin to the drivers that they needed cars.  I was there for all of 5 minutes before getting dispatched to the terminal.  Picked up a gentleman and his parents from Paris.  They were very nice, although didn't speak much to me.  But when I delivered them to their destination, the father gave me a big handshake as I helped them with their bags.  They did also seep to appreciate the view from the bridge on the way into the city.  It really was breathtaking.

On the short line at JFK

Things were slow for a while.  Then I got a ride to Brooklyn.  Once in Brooklyn, i ended up getting two more fares before heading back into Manhattan only to be hailed right away by a hipster couple to Williamsburg.  And after driving them over the bridge to their destination(which they changed several times, mind you) they didn't give a tip.  Thanks guys!  And you wonder why some drivers don't want to drive you to Brooklyn!  Douchebags.

Got back to the city and again, I get hailed and go back to Brooklyn!  At this point it was getting a little ridiculous.  I also was starting to feel a little under the weather(as I write this I am in bed with the sickies).  I decided I would drive until I got taken to Brooklyn again.  I got back into the city and was in the West Village when a girl hails me and asks to go to Astoria.  It's not Brooklyn, but close enough.  At that point I decided to call it a night, even if it was a little early.  I dropped her off in Astoria and turned on my "off duty" light and headed back to the garage. 

View of the Empire State Building from the Manhattan Bridge

I originally planned on working today before my body rebelled.  I think its a combination of this time of year along with my body acclimating to this new schedule, but it is not happy.  Hopefully its over with quickly so I can hit the road again soon!

Pip Pip Cherio

Drove a day shift today.  I realize now, I am a night driver.  Today was rough.  Aside from my bad morning and commute to the garage, the day was slower than I would have liked, and traffic was a pain in the ass all day.  Nobody was unpleasant, but i just wasn;t feeling it today.  One of the small redeeming qualities of my day was this:

Taxi Snapshot of the Day

It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the city is, day or night.  Going over any of the bridges into the city always takes my breath away.  I'll count that as a small victory for today.

I did notice a disproportionate ammount of ex-pats that I drove today.  Seriously.  I had about 15 fares.  At least five of those were Brits who weren't tourists.  It was odd.  Really odd.

Really, not anything exciting to write about today.  Day shifts are boring compared to the nights.  So, in the meantime, enjoy this photo of my new manicure.  I know there isn't any yellow, but it's got checkers like the old taxis used to have.  So, close enough, right?

Checker Nails on the Girly Cabbie, the girliest of cabbies.

Oh!  and also as I mentioned yesterday, I rode in a tiny Prius cab with my sister.  It was tiny.  But I took a Taxi Snapshot too.  So there is that.

Candy Cabbie

Found this article a few days ago and thought I would share.  It would be fun to wind up in this guy's cab...

LINK:  NYC Candy Cabbie

And on a side note, today I was in Manhattan with my sister and we hailed a taxi and got one of the newer, smaller cabs.  Holy crap!  They are so small and uncomfortable!  And they want to phase out the Crown Vics!  Ridiculous.  Crown Vics you can fit three people in the back COMFORTABLY... It was just me and my sister in the back of the little cab and it felt cramped...  ugh!

Run of the Mill

After a good night shift on Sunday, I decided to work a few more night shifts this week.  Monday, I made sure to get to the garage nice and early.  And it payed off, too!  I was in a cab by 3pm!  For those not in the know, most taxi shifts go from 4-4 or 5-5.  So that means at about 3pm, most cabs go off duty to head back to their garages.  This also means that for the few cars who are on duty, this is big money time.  It is always good when there are more passengers than taxis.  And that happens until about 6pm when most of the night shift drivers make it into the city.  So that was a three hour advantage.  And to top it off, I got a fare on my way into the city too!  So, double bonus!

Monday night was busy.  Surprisingly so.  But I found most people weren't up to chatting or anything.  So even though I had over 30 passengers, only a small handful wanted to talk.  I did pick up one couple down on Bowery after the gentleman hailed me with one impressive whistle.  They were very nice and clearly they were having a good night.

I was driving around the Times Square area a little later, cruising for passengers.  Coming up to a corner, i thought some other cab was trying to edge in to cut me off until the driver rolls down the window and calls over to me "Hey lady!".  I looked over and there was another girl driver.  She was very excited to pass me by.  We managed to chat for a few moments and exchange numbers at the light before we took off in different directions.  She was very sweet and told me to give her a ring if I ever needed any help.  So nice!  I forget how rare we are in the industry.  According to an article I read the other day, there are only about 170 female drivers out of the over 46,000 male drivers in the city.  It is nice that she reached out to me.  Its like a little club in the midst of this huge boy's club.

Anyways, after a while things got a little slower.  I was cruising the West Village(which terrifies me less and less every shift I've driven) and I picked up three girls to go waaaay uptown.  Then as I was headed back down Broadway, a guy hails me.  He gets in and says we are going to Astoria.  I told him no problem, but he would have to help direct me a bit once we got to Queens.  He tells me to take the lower level on the 59th st bridge and then he can direct me from there.  So I drive to the bridge and go over it on the lower level.  As we are almost on the other side, I turn to ask him where we go next.  He was fast asleep.  And had headphones on.  So I had to holler at him to wake him up.  I ask him again where to go and he tells me to take the lower level at which point I say "uhhhh, yeah, we are already in Queens".  He is confused for a few moments before he gets his bearings and directs me where we need to go.  Finally I get him to his destination.  And after all that and an almost $25 fare, he gives me a dollar tip.....  Thanks, buddy!

JFK Central Taxi Lot

I didn't drive on Tuesday, but I did last night.  I found out at the beginning of my shift that the JFK lot was pretty empty, so I headed over to the airport.  It was my first time there in a cab, so I was a little confused as to how things worked.  But I managed to get it sorted and got dispatched to Terminal 5.  I got to the terminal and within a few moment I had a young guy come up to the car.  I got out to help him put his bags in the car and he asks me if I knew where Coney Island Ave. and Corteleyou Rd were.  I laughed and told him I grew up around the corner from there and he was happy that he wouldn't have to direct me every step of the way.  We had a nice ride up Linden from the airport too talking about everything from iPhones to mixtapes and how the neighborhood had changed over the past few years.  And by the time we made it there i had a nice chunk of change for the first hour of work. 

The rest of the evening wasn't very eventful.  It wasn't crazy busy, but it wasn't dead either.  Like Monday night, not that many people were feeling chatty.  So I just had my radio to listen to as i made my way around the city.  Later in the evening, I got a text from my parents.  They had been to a concert and if I was in the area, I could pick them up and take them home.  I was in the area, so I gave them a ride.  It was fun!  I got to show off my cab(which for the evening, wasn't one of the nicest ones I've driven thus far).  And after dropping them off at home, I even had a fare in Brooklyn on my way back.

One lady I had a nice chat with about what I've learned in my short time in the taxi industry and we got talking about bikes, and in particular those goddamn rickshaw bike taxis.  These things drive me crazy!  They just drive wherever they feel like, cut into traffic without signaling and even drive the wrong way down busy streets.  And what I have assessed over my short time driving, is I HATE THESE GUYS!!!!  They are seriously dangerous and I don't understand people who think its fun to take them.  I would be terrified.  I don;t think they have any sort of regulations and if they do, they aren't enforced. So, yeah.  Ranty rant rant!!!!

So far, I am enjoying driving nights much more than days.  The money is better, the traffic is better, and the city is so much prettier at night.  I am finally taking a little break for a couple of days.  I need it.  Driving is fun, but it is exhausting.

View from behind the meter driving into Times Square

I like the nightlife, I like to boogie.

Tonight I worked my first ever night shift.  I was a little apprehensive about nights, but my mind was put at ease after this evening.

I got a fare headed into Manhattan from in front of the new Barclay's Center.  This was awesome because instead of sitting in traffic into the city for free, I was getting paid for it.  And the two guys who hopped in were really nice and rather entertaining.  Apparently we are all going bungee jumping in the Bahamas some day.  Good times.

From there on it was pretty steady all night.  And the fact that it was Sunday night, the traffic was pretty clear.  I picked up a nice old couple downtown and drove them to the Upper East Side.  They were very sweet and put a smile on my face.  The woman said she thought I was a very good driver.  I wish they were my grandparents I could go over to their house and eat fresh baked cookies......  okay, okay...  too far....  but they were very nice. 

I found myself downtown again and tried hitting up the Seaport for a fare.  Didn't find one, but as I was about to get back on the highway, I was hailed by a group of people with cases and cases of wine.  I guess they were bartending for some function that supposedly Andrew Zimmern was at.  They seemed like they had been partaking in the wine as well, but were nice too.  And when they got out and unloaded all their wine, the one guy who seemed like the boss handed me a bottle of wine.  Very nice!

I picked up a group of very clearly high school kids on 14th.  They were rushing to get back before their curfew.  I thought it was adorable.  They were very much drunk or high or both.  But they were nice and asked nicely if they gave me a good tip if they could play some loud music.  So I let them.  They were having fun and made me laugh.  Ahhhh, high school........

I had a fare from Times Square to Queens and decided to call it a night.  It was almost 2 and i was starting to get sleepy.  So I headed back to the garage.  Overall, it was a good night.  Not super busy, but nowhere near dead.  Made a nice chunk of change for the evening and I had interesting passengers and no bad traffic.  Can't complain!  Contemplating working again tomorrow night.  Gonna go to the garage.  Hopefully I'll get a car.  Until then, enjoy this blurry photo of the Chrystler Building I took from my cab: