Fucking Cabdrivers

I suffered my first casualty of the transit strike this evening. Leaving the office, I was rushing to get out of the office to the dry cleaners before it closed, so I could have these particular pants that I wear so often when I go out of town tomorrow, and I made the great error of hailing a yellow cab. When I noted that he wasn't going to use the meter, he immediately bridled and asked me if I had a problem with that. (There is some sort of system of zones in place during the strike, which was a terrible plan because it led to mad scams because everyone had a different idea about where the zones were.) I guess this man had had one too many negotiations gone bad because he threatened to stop and let me out of the car and when I persisted in asking how many zones my destination was, he got more and more pissed. He actually said, "Well I was going to charge you ten dollars [one zone according to NY1] but now I don't know... I was done for the evening and going home to eat my dinner, but I stopped for you and know there is all this business about zones." Then I lost my temper in a big way and ended up totally yelling back at him about how he raised his voice to me first, no one made him stop for me, and its perfectly reasonable to want to know how much the ride is going to be. Then I announced he wasn't getting a fare from me and jumped out of the cab. Truly, I think I won this particular run-in with a cranky New Yorker, because I got eight blocks closer to my destination and I made it to the dry cleaner on time.

I supposed its payback for the guy who charged me for $ 5 toll coming from Kennedy and going to the Lower East Side when there is certainly no toll if you take the Manhattan Bridge.