Why taxi's are like mosquitoes

Both are vital parts of the ecosystem. Mosquitoes relieve animals the burden of carrying too much blood, spread malaria, and generally irritate people. Taxi's relieve people the burden of carrying too much money, spread road rage, and generally irritate people. 



I know that I shouldn't be so hard on them. They do have a tough job and they are in a sense my colleagues. We're all professional drivers but they just make it so easy for me to hate them. I know, hate is a strong word. Believe me I don't use it lightly. This is an opinion I have formed after many hours of driving alongside them. Here are a few of my reasons.



They never yield. In one of my previous posts I was complaining about how most cars don't yield to the bus well taxi's NEVER yield. In my entire history of driving I have witnessed two taxi's yield. Two. That's it. And there are a lot of taxi's in the city. Currently, I'm attempting to teach taxi driver's how it's done. What I do is when I'm at a stop and ready to pull out into traffic, I wait until a taxi shows up and I cut in front of him. Usually this results in him slamming on the brakes, swerving into the other lane (without signaling or shoulder checking), laying on the horn and giving me the finger. I really don't see why they react with such hostility. I'm doing them a favour by showing them it's not the end of the world to let a bus in front of them and they really are capable of doing it. It's kind of like trying to teach a cat to sit. Not impossible but incredibly difficult. I believe though with enough patience and perseverance I can do it. 


They park wherever they want. They seem to believe that their hazard lights double as "park anywhere lights". A favorite haunt of theirs is bus stops. Even though there is a loading zone (they're loading people, I support them using it), or deserted street half a block ahead they still have to park smack dab in the middle of my stop. I've come to the conclusion that they must hate buses as much as we hate them so they do this to spite us. Of course whenever I honk at a taxi in order to get him to move, it works. He'll move up half a foot for me. Thanks. A friend of mine told me a story of what he does to taxi's in bus stops. He'll angle park in front of them, so they can't get out, put on his brakes and go outside and start checking to make sure all of the lights are working on the bus. Usually the taxi driver will get mad and start yelling at him to move. He'll reply with "Oh, I'm sorry but I'm going to be here a few more minutes. I guess you'll have to back up." As soon as the taxi starts reversing he'll hop back in the bus, and drive away, leaving the taxi driver irate. I haven't had the nerve to try this and to be honest, I don't know if I ever will. It seems a little bit too cruel for my standards. 

Another place that they like to park is in the middle of the bus lane. You'll be cruising along at fifty clicks when suddenly there's a taxi parked in your lane. You'll honk but to no avail this guy will not budge. So now you have to switch lanes into heavy traffic, wait five minutes until you've passed the jerk and then switch back into your lane. It's irritating I tell you. 


They neglect to follow the rules of the road. Turn signals they don't use them. U-turns, they make them illegally. They cut people off. They honk inappropriately. Red lights, they run them. I've seen taxi's driving the wrong way down a one way street or reversing a full city block on a major street. 



This is just the tip of the ice burg folks. I could start a new blog on the stupid things I've seen taxi's do. But don't worry, I won't. This concludes my spiel on why taxi's are similar to mosquitoes. All in all, I'd take a mosquito over a taxi any day of the week.