Well, as you know I am without a car right now; it's been two weeks since my accident in which my motorcycle was totaled. While I have been getting rides to work mostly and trying to gather up the patience to take the bus, i often find myself calling for a cab. I had forgotten how ridiculously expensive they were until I had my car accident; to say I was shocked is an understatement. It cost me twenty five dollars to get downtown to work the other day, a ten minute drive from my house. That means they're charging almost three dollars a minute! It's sheer robbery I tell you! I always forget how expensive it is to take a taxi in this city; the fact that hits me the hardest is the enormous amount of cash I am constantly having to get out of the bank machine everyday. I find it hard to keep up, withdrawing a hundred dollars and then two days later taking more out. If I continue at this rate my bank account will be empty faster than you can say "taxi". The fact that they start at almost four dollars before you even get in the car is f**ked up, the whole industry is. Yet they easily get away with it because when it comes down to it, it's certainly a pleasure not to have to drive places yourself, or even worst, take the bus!
The bus system in this city is just horrible, absolutely awful! It will take me three times longer to take the bus to work than to drive! Three times longer! I honestly don't know how people do it, yet millions in this city do. Then you have to deal with the fact of having to sit or stand next to anybody and everybody, and your trip is not very pleasant. I will say, although lot's say I'm being ridiculas, I get a little homicidal when I have to take the bus. Most of the time I spend sitting rigidly in my seat, having to bite my tongue not to yell at the bus driver to hurry the f**k up! Obviously you can't expect to go very fast when you have to stop every two minutes, yet they could put a little more effort into it. But why should they? They are driving the bus for the next ten hours anyways, why do they need to hurry? I think if this city was more transit friendly then I wouldn't mind taking the bus; after all it saves you thousands compared to a car or taking cabs. Yet they just can't seem to make it efficient. You will have bus drivers that just sit at a stop for five minutes, just twiddling there thumbs. I know they do this so they will be on schedule and people won't miss their bus because it arrived five minutes earlier, yet if they would have more buses running more frequently, it wouldn't be an issue to start with. I took the bus to high school years ago for a long time, and I hated every minute of it, vowing that as soon as I got my license I would get a vehicle of my own. Surprisingly, from age seventeen and on I've always had something or other to drive.
I just don't understand how cab companies can charge the astronomical amount that they do from point A to point B. It's enough to make you shake your head at the greed of some people. Then there's the drivers who don't even turn on the meter, they just take you to the place and name a price. Personally, I don't care if they do that as long as I know how long it takes to get there; I'm not letting them rip me off when thy're doing something that goes against policy in the first place! Often I will end up getting a better deal then I would had they turned on their meter.
For now, I try to take cabs only when I really can't fathom walking or busing; for example when I go to the gym at six in the morning. It's well worth the six or seven bucks to get their and be able to start my workout immediately as opposed to spending fifth-teen or twenty minutes walking. And if it's raining and cold; forget it! There's no way in hell I'm walking in that and getting drenched in the process before I even start at the gym! So while I would love to take taxis everywhere and not have to worry about driving, insurance, parking, all the crap that comes with having your own car, I simply don't have, nor want to waste, hundreds of dollars every week to get a ride. Cab's are great for the business man who's company is paying for them, or for the person who's making fifty or sixty grand a year, but for the average guy working at a fast food joint, it's simply not an option for long.
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