cab drivers are bad for your health
I drove Don to the airport on Wednesday morning. At the drop-off lane at the airport I almost got hit by a cab and I remarked to Don that the craziest drivers in this city are cab drivers. I live on the outskirts of downtown Minneapolis and I do quite a lot of walking to and from central downtown and I have observed that the people who run red lights the most are cabbies. I have learned to always look before crossing the road, even when the light is with me, I almost got wiped out at 3rd and Hennepin once by a car running the light. The corner of LaSalle and Grand is especially bad, there are a lot of cabs in this neighborhood and they are always screeching into the S.A. and running the light.
I turned on the TV last night and something on the news immediately caught my attention. There on the screen was a familiar intersection just a few blocks from my place: LaSalle and 15th. A cabbie hit and killed a 24 year old male pedestrian, the cabbie has been arrested and there is suspicion that he was drunk at the time.
I rant and rave about cab drivers a lot. They are always on my block and they drive like assholes: stopping in the middle of the street, making u-turns without warning, blocking driveways, driving on the wrong side of the road, not signaling turns, on and on. I have also ranted about cab drivers who don't know what they are doing. Don and I have often taken cabs from the airport and have had to tell the driver how to get to our place. This can be pretty difficult when the driver barely speaks English. Which comes to my biggest puzzlement - how do these guys get cab licenses? Think about it: you have just moved to a foreign country where you don't speak the language and you don't know your way around the city so what is the most logical job you should have? Right! You should drive a cab where the biggest requirements are that you should know your way around the city and should be able to communicate with your passengers. Also it helps if you came from a warm country and have never had to drive in snow and ice, that really adds to the excitement on the roads around here.
I am going to be ever vigilant from now on, death by cabbie is not the way to go. Assholes.
I turned on the TV last night and something on the news immediately caught my attention. There on the screen was a familiar intersection just a few blocks from my place: LaSalle and 15th. A cabbie hit and killed a 24 year old male pedestrian, the cabbie has been arrested and there is suspicion that he was drunk at the time.
I rant and rave about cab drivers a lot. They are always on my block and they drive like assholes: stopping in the middle of the street, making u-turns without warning, blocking driveways, driving on the wrong side of the road, not signaling turns, on and on. I have also ranted about cab drivers who don't know what they are doing. Don and I have often taken cabs from the airport and have had to tell the driver how to get to our place. This can be pretty difficult when the driver barely speaks English. Which comes to my biggest puzzlement - how do these guys get cab licenses? Think about it: you have just moved to a foreign country where you don't speak the language and you don't know your way around the city so what is the most logical job you should have? Right! You should drive a cab where the biggest requirements are that you should know your way around the city and should be able to communicate with your passengers. Also it helps if you came from a warm country and have never had to drive in snow and ice, that really adds to the excitement on the roads around here.
I am going to be ever vigilant from now on, death by cabbie is not the way to go. Assholes.