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Cab drivers (with truck drivers) used to be THE BEST drivers on the road.
Tonight, between the Market Street Safeway and my home, different Yellow Cab drivers made 2 illegal U-turns and ran 3 Stop signs! Seriously, I am talking about five (5!) different cabs with different drivers! And I cannot begin to tell you how many F-U’s I get after I have to slam on the brakes because I’m in their way! I have many friends visiting from Manhattan or New Jersey who are completely appalled.
I am also a frequent traveler, and I have stopped using any type of cab service because I’m sick and tired of having to explain where Noe Valley is! These mental midgets should know besides the traffic laws what and where the major points are in this (relatively small) city! I used to use SuperShuttle, but after one driver (too many) went over a curb so that he could bypass on the right! other cars that were blocking him, it’s limo service for me. It’s a huge expense but so much less aggravating.
The latter is not nearly as important as the former — these amateurs are a traffic threat as well as a serious nuisance.
For example, you should see the inconsiderate actions they feel entitled to take at 18th Street and Market alone. It doesn’t matter what color the pedestrian light is, or whether there are any buses coming. Mind you, Mayor Newsome and Supervisor Dufty, it’s not Yellow Cab alone. It’s just that Yellow Cab made the mistake of making themselves the most obvious with their yellow cars and their largest fleet. If the SFPD or the SFPT would place one or two officers at that intersection, the revenue would make a serious dent in any of the Cityís deficits.
And, Mayor Newsome and Supervisor Dufty (a) this City doesn’t need more cab drivers, just more professional ones; and (b) we really don’t care to hear about their discontent — no one forced them to become a cabby at gunpoint. Okay?
Daniel Long
955 Elizabeth Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
- : 1.0
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June 29th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Did you know that all one has to do to drive a cab in SF is basically to attend a one week class, take a driving test that lasts a couple of minutes on a virtually deserted road, and take a written test? Did you know that there is only one place where these classes are held, and only one or two people who teach the classes. And, one of them owns the “school”. While taking the written test (it’s just about locations of hotels,landmarks and stuff, a little about rules and regs), people blatently give one another the answers while taking the test (they talk to one another - they look at each others papers) and still they pass. Literally, you can move here from Pakistan (or wherever) on Monday, and have a license to drive a cab, and be actually driving a cab by the following Monday. As long as you can pay to attend the school, and have some form of driver’s license. New drivers (and there are a bunch of new ones each and every week) are supposed to take maps with them until they learn the city. They don’t. But, even if they did, who would want to pay a meter that was run up by a driver reading a map! Especially if the driver can’t read English-could cost a pretty penny! They should call dispatch for help. They don’t, because they’re not the brightest people for the most part, and that would be too logical. Or,because, they don’t know that’s an option. Or because, when they do, the dispatchers are often rude and/or insulting for no reason other than they can be. So, instead, of getting help they raise the price on the meter driving around pretending like they know where they’re going.
This system, like most city run or sanctioned legacy systems (ie Muni) is a joke (kind of like all the illegals who can sneak over from Mexico on Monday morning and be doing a job that us lazy Americans just won’t do in one of Gavin’s restaurants through local 2 by happy hour time on Friday night. Sanctuary city - wonder why.) that benefits only a few individuals, and not the public at large. The guy who owns the taxi school is a former driver. He’s making out like a bandit, and because the school is at the Yellow Cab Companys’ office; they’re probably getting a nice chunk as well. Like Muni, change needs to happen from the top down - not the bottom up. Shuck the entire management/ownership layer, and start again with fresh people who haven’t been grandfathered in.