Tuesday, September 20, 2011

DC and Cabbies

My frustration with the streets of DC and cabbies combined once again last night.  It was ungodly early in the morning, and they were doing that thing where they look for as many fares as possible.  I told the cabbie I was going to Dupont and he said that was close to where this other girl was going, and we got in the cab.
     She was going to 6th and L.  That's not close to where I was going, but it was kind of on the way.  Except that it wasn't at all on the way because she wanted to go to 6th & L North East, and we were going to North West.  Of course, we didn't realize this until we were at 6th & L NW.
     The lovely girl asked the cabbie if he took debit or credit cards.  No.  Cash Only.  This is common (and shitty) for DC cabs.  The woman only had $4 on her, so she asked him to pull over and let her out.  We happened to be at 6th & L NW so he was all "just give me the $4, this is your stop" and she was all "no, this isn't, what way should I start walking?"
     Then they started arguing over whether or not she said North East when she first told him where she needed to go.  That was a fun argument to sit and watch.  Also, at that point, it kind of didn't matter if she said it or he didn't hear it, because it was 3:45am and we were 12 blocks from where she wanted to go.  I started to open the door to let her out, but apparently the cab driver had enough sense to not let a beautiful young woman walk 1.2 miles alone in the middle of the night, through NE nonetheless.
     He told her to stay in the cab while he took me home and then he would take her to her stop.  Bitter sweet, really, because that was not going to be fast or comfortable.  When we got to my stop, I seriously over tipped, again, because I thought maybe it would help her not get murdered later.
     I blame the whole thing on Jeac-Pierre L'Enfant, (I have no idea what his first name was.)  The asshole who designed this city.  There is the potential for 4 intersections by the same name with this system.  There's is almost a 6th&L SE, but 6th SE runs into the highway before it reaches Lst.  There is a 5th&L SE (and 5th&L NE and NW), and an 8th&L SE, as well as a 6th & M SW.  It's bananas.  BANANAS!  At 3:45 in the morning, it's understandable how one might forget to say North East or North West, and how a cab would just drive all over, going as fast as it can, because that's what cabs do, and then just drop you off miles and miles away from your home, but insist it's where you wanted to be.  L'Enfant, you owe every one of us at least $30 in cab fare.

No comments:

Post a Comment