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The average taxicab driver of Los Angeles must be out to prove something. Maybe they have a chip on their shoulder because they aren't the first thing that pops into someone's mind when they think of a typical "cabbie". That honor has to go to the New York taxicab driver. Those guys are usually pictured in one of two ways; either an overweight, older man, with a pull-down cap on his head, growling "Where to, pal?", or the foreign driver, speaking barely passable English, who has only just arrived in the city yesterday.
In fact, the image of a New York cabbie was so strong, that a whole show was built around it. Who could forget the haunting opening tune from the 1978-1983 series that gave us Judd Hirsch, Jeff Conaway, Marilu Henner, Carol Kane, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, and of course, Andy Kaufman? It only helped hammer home the New York cabbie dominance of the taxi scene into the collective heads of America.
However, LAist has noticed as of late that the taxicab drivers in Los Angeles seem intent on erasing this image from our heads. Have you been cut off in traffic by a taxi lately in Los Angeles? Or even, as hard as it is to imagine, Orange County or the Inland Empire? In the past three days alone we have seen countless near-misses involving speeding cabbies, and have also witnessed several uses of the one-finger salute from those same drivers. Even Michael Mann may be in on their scheme, as his film "Collateral" takes place mostly in Jamie Foxx's Los Angeles cab, in and around familiar streets of our fair city.
Did they bribe this filmmaker in order to further their cause? New York tried to top them with Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon in 2004's "Taxi", but it is perhaps best not to think about that movie, at all. Once Oliver Stone has brushed the dust off of himself from his fall from "Alexander", perhaps he could look into this new and insidious conspiracy.
Hail to thee, cabbies.
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I have to agree. LA's taxi drivers are some of the rudest and most dangerously aggressive I have ever seen, especially on the freeways. Is there anything we can do about it, like reporting it?
You should always be able to call the offending cab's company number and complain. Who knows if that actually does anything though. I just picture Danny Devito answering the phone and laughing.
As a young former cab driver, and for a year or so one of only a handful of native-English-speaking drivers to prowl the streets of LA, I feel uniquely qualified to comment on this.
Firstly, if a driver is acting dangerously, write down the four-digit number printed on both sides of his taxi. If you want to hurt him financially, call his cab company - they'll "deauthorize" him for a few hours as punishment, meaning he can't take any calls and he has to work late (which may mean he'll work too many hours and kill someone later in a sort of karmic boomerang.) Alternately, you can call the taxi commission in downtown and file a complaint, which will ruin his life, leading to alcoholism, wife-beating and allowing his children to wind up in an orphanage in Calcutta.
Understand that these people are immigrants working long hours for what amounts to about $350 a week. But then bearing that in mind, take this next bit of advice to heart:
When you step into an LA taxi, keep a keen eye on the meter, particularly if you have booze on your breath. Why? Because the cabs in this town are owned and controlled by the Russian mob. Frequently, your driver is a Russian who has been brought over by them in a sort of indentured servitude: They give him a few bucks for food and let him a corner of a room in one of their apartment blocks, and he drives for them 16 hours a day, every day, for 3 or 4 years until he's released and his family is brought over.
To increase the mob's take, they will lie, cheat and steal. The taxi meters in LA are checked every 6 months at special meter-shops regulated by the California Dept. of Agriculture. These meter-shops, however, are owned by the same mob that owns the cab companies (Checker, United and Yellow -- Bell is a feudal system controlled partly by Russians and partly by Mexicans, and is not as apt or able to cheat as they use older-style meters.) So for a $50 fee to the driver, the crooked meter-shop will "check" your meter, officially report that it's okay, and then re-rig it with a remote-controlled sensor. It sounds advanced, but the way it works is simple. The driver has a small remote -- like a garage-door opener -- in his left pocket. When he sees the customer is distracted, drunk, or simply looking out the window, he presses the button: The meter speeds up, running way ahead, returning to normal whenever the driver presses the button again.
This is what taxi drivers in LA refer to as, "the secrets." As in, "Oh, you didn't make any money today? Don't you know the secrets?"
So -- obviously I'm submitting this anonymously, out of fear of retribution (I left off driving cab after a boss threatened to cut my fingers off.)
Just understand that your average LA cab driver -- quite different from the NY cabbie -- lives a life of subhuman misery and poverty the likes of which you can barely imagine.
I'm sorry, but I have to submit this anonymously for fear of retribution from my former bosses, who are a scary bunch of people.
As a young former cab driver, and for a year or so one of only a handful of native-English-speaking drivers to prowl the streets of LA, I feel uniquely qualified to comment on this.
Firstly, if a driver is acting dangerously, write down the four-digit number printed on both sides of his taxi. If you want to hurt him financially, call his cab company - they'll "deauthorize" him for a few hours as punishment, meaning he can't take any calls and he has to work late (which may mean he'll work too many hours and kill someone later in a sort of karmic boomerang.) Alternately, you can call the taxi commission in downtown and file a complaint, which will ruin his life, leading to alcoholism, wife-beating and allowing his children to wind up in an orphanage in Calcutta.
Understand that these people are immigrants working long hours for what amounts to about $350 a week. But then bearing that in mind, take this next bit of advice to heart:
When you step into an LA taxi, keep a keen eye on the meter, particularly if you have booze on your breath. Why? Because the cabs in this town are owned and controlled by the Russian mob. Frequently, your driver is a Russian who has been brought over by them in a sort of indentured servitude: They give him a few bucks for food and let him a corner of a room in one of their apartment blocks, and he drives for them 16 hours a day, every day, for 3 or 4 years until he's released and his family is brought over.
To increase the mob's take, they will lie, cheat and steal. The taxi meters in LA are checked every 6 months at special meter-shops regulated by the California Dept. of Agriculture. These meter-shops, however, are owned by the same mob that owns the cab companies (Checker, United and Yellow -- Bell is a feudal system controlled partly by Russians and partly by Mexicans, and is not as apt or able to cheat as they use older-style meters.) So for a $50 fee to the driver, the crooked meter-shop will "check" your meter, officially report that it's okay, and then re-rig it with a remote-controlled sensor. It sounds advanced, but the way it works is simple. The driver has a small remote -- like a garage-door opener -- in his left pocket. When he sees the customer is distracted, drunk, or simply looking out the window, he presses the button: The meter speeds up, running way ahead, returning to normal whenever the driver presses the button again.
This is what taxi drivers in LA refer to as, "the secrets." As in, "Oh, you didn't make any money today? Don't you know the secrets?"
I left off driving cab after a boss threatened to cut my fingers off.
Just understand that your average LA cab driver -- quite different from the NY cabbie -- lives a life of subhuman misery and poverty the likes of which you can barely imagine.
To anonymous- thanks for writing, that's pretty interesting to know. I doubt I'll be calling a cab for a while.
I live in the SF Valley and it seems like most cabbies here are Armenians.