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June 17, 2006
More DC Cabbie Wisdom
Andrew Roth
As I've written before, I love talking to cabbies. They always seem to say something profound when I'm riding around town. Just the other day, I was going from the Club's office in downtown DC to the Hill. You have to negotiate through probably 20-25 stop lights, all of which seem to turn red when you approach them. It's extremely frustrating. bq. ME: So what do you think about these stop lights? bq. CABBIE: It's ridiculous. The town isn't very big, but because of the lights, it takes forever to get anywhere. bq. ME: No kidding. I wonder why they don't sync up the lights so that traffic runs smoother. bq. CABBIE: The lights are a reflection of the system, of this government, of this town. bq. ME: You can say that again. bq. CABBIE: The lights are a reflection of the system, of this government, of this town.
Posted at 5:30 PM, June 17, 2006 | Trackback | Print | #
March 3, 2006
Adventures in Cab Driving
Andrew Roth
I took a cab both to and from lunch today. I love chatting with the drivers because they've always got something interesting to say (here's a previous post on the subject). The first driver today was updating me on the so-called "war" that taxi drivers are having with the local government. The pretext to the war is that the city uses speeding cameras that photograph cars if they go too fast. If you're caught, you get a poignant letter in the mail several days later with a picture of your car as proof of your offense (they identify you by your license plate number). These cameras are cash cows for the city, and naturally, cab drivers are hit the hardest by this "taxi tax" since they drive all day long. At first, cab drivers tipped each other off to let everyone know where the cameras were stationed. Count that as a battle victory for the cabbies. But the government got wise to this and installed cameras in unmanned parked cars. Every so often, they'd move the cars leaving the cab drivers guessing. Score one for the government. Now it seems the war has escalated. I was told today that cab drivers are using aerosol cans that spray an invisible film over their license plates so when a speeding camera takes a picture of a car, the license plate can't be identified because the spray somehow turns black on the photo film. Clever, eh? Stay tuned for how the government will respond to that. As for the other cab driver who brought me back from lunch today, he was a professional. A professional stock trader, that is. Or so he seemed. On his dashboard sat his laptop with a wireless modem providing him with real-time quotes and charts. Being a former stock trader myself, I found the guy to be quite knowledgable. He told me he was a technical trader, which is kind of whacked out, but he knew his stuff. He was talking about 200-day moving averages, Bollinger Bands, and dead cat bounces. I asked him what he thought of Level 3 Communications (ticker is LVLT). He said it's due for a new high. Great, but I'm not holding my breath. All in all, you can look to the 3-4% growth in GDP to prove that we're no longer in a recession, but when cab drivers are trading stocks again, you know the investor class is roaring back to full strength. Cab drivers. You gotta love these guys. They are the salt of the earth.
Posted at 5:13 PM, March 3, 2006 | Trackback | Print | #
December 30, 2004
DC Cabbies
Andrew Roth
While I'm not enthusiastic about riding around DC in cabs (the Metro is cheaper), I love quizzing the cabbies about their occupation. Last night, I hailed a cab, and got a driver from Ethiopia. I asked him to take me from Downtown DC to Arlington, Virgina (a lot of cabbies hate this because they usually have to cross the river back into DC without picking up another fare). bq. I ask, "How's business tonight?" bq. "It's horrible. I've been driving around for 2 hours without a fare. I'm only taking you to Virginia because it's so slow." bq. We talk some more about the weather, the Asian Tsunami, Britney Spears, etc. bq. "What's the biggest tip that you've ever received?" bq. "One guy, he gave me a $40 tip on a $18 fare. He was a good man. Good American. I love America. I love supply and demand. In my country, if the rider thinks the fare is too high, they say they will call the police." bq. "What do you think about the meter versus the zones?" [In Virginia, cabs use the standard meter, but in DC, they charge fares according to "zones". If your destination is confined to one geographical zone, it's $5.50. As you cross into more zones, it's more money. With zones, the rider often does not know what the fare is unless s/he is familiar with the town and the awful "zone map" (PDF)] bq. He replies, "Before I started driving, I hated the zones. Now, I don't mind. If we go back to the meter, I'm okay with it, but I like the zones." bq. "In your opinion, what is the percentage of DC cabbies that rip people off by overcharging them because they don't know the zones?" bq. "Oh, you have to be careful. There are undercover cops. They will fine you if you overcharge." bq. "Yeah, but what's the percentage? How many cabbies will overcharge?" bq. "On slow days like today, all of them will overcharge. All of them. But on busy nights, they will be fair." You can learn a lot from these guys.
Posted at 10:42 AM, December 30, 2004 | Trackback | Print | #
