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| Photo courtesy of Melissa Ryan (copyright) |
New York City taxi drivers are just like its residents: some are quiet, others are loud, some are sane, others are nuts. It really is a mixed bag. But to find out what your driver is like, you first have to catch the taxi in the first place.
There's a bit of etiquette around "cabbage" in New York. Articles like this one remind you to only hail cabs that have their little roof lights on, and don't even bother trying to get a cab during the shift change (which also, rather inconveniently, aligns with evening rush hour). Forget about cabs on rainy days - they're always full - and after theatre shows, it pays to walk a couple of blocks away from the crowds and hail a cab elsewhere.
Keeping an eye out for other New Yorkers trying to wave down a cab is very important. Steal someone's taxi - even by accident, and you'll be headed for a fight. It's just not worth it. There are tips online for how to make yourself obvious when trying to hail a cab in New York too, but I've never found that doing star-jumps or waving cash around is needed.
A frustration that I've often found is that cab drivers will pull up, the driver will wind down his window, and he'll ask me where I need to go. If he doesn't feel like taking me, he'll drive right on. That is totally illegal, but it does happen. I've never been too aggrieved by this to take action, but if I wanted to report the driver to the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, I'd be totally within my rights to do so.
Another irritation for me is the "gypsy cab". They are usually nice-looking cars that see you trying to hail a cab and will pull up next to you, offering you a ride. There's nothing wrong with them - they're not trying to abduct you or anything, but a "gypsy cab" doesn't have a proper meter. The driver will try and negotiate a fare with you - usually way above what you'd normally pay in an official yellow cab. In times of desperation (inclement weather, traffic chaos) you might be tempted to take a gypsy cab, but I have never felt the need. It's easy to just wave them along and wait for a yellow cab to drive by.
When you finally do get a taxi, it really helps to know where you're going. That sounds like common sense, but when you're only visiting here, you might not really have your bearings yet. I mean, some places are obvious. If you want to get a cab to JFK Airport, or to the Empire State Building, the taxi will know where to take you. But if you've got an exact address (like 980 Sixth Avenue), that's not necessarily going to help too much. It's often better if you can Google map ahead of time where that address is - what it's cross-streets are. That way you can get in to the cab and confidently tell the driver you need to go "to Sixth Ave, between 29th & 30th Streets". Then you'll experience the full G-forces of a NYC cab driver taking off in exactly the right direction you need. Whoosh!
The blessing of NYC cabs is also that they take credit cards, so you don't need to worry about having cash with you - and you get to process your own credit card in the backseat using their touch-screen technology. Fancy.
But you need to remember that tipping is a thing in taxis too. When I lived in Chicago, the maxim on cab tipping was always "round up to the nearest dollar, and add a dollar". Here in New York it's a bit different. Because I tend to use credit cards all the time, I just add the 20% tip on the touch screen when I'm completing my transaction. 20% on a cab fare may sound like a lot, but it's the minimum tip offered and it's hardly much in the scheme of things. And airport journeys have flat-rate taxi charges, so you just need to remember to add some extra tip for any additional passengers in the car with you, or any help the driver gave you with your luggage.
In the three years of living here, I've never felt unsafe in a NYC taxi. They have always been reliable modes of transportation, ferrying me safely from place to place at all times of day. And taking a taxi in New York is one of those things that's just like in the movies. You walk out into the street, lift your arm into the air, and before long a yellow taxi will pull up in front of you and whisk you away. They make often break all kinds of road rules and honk their horns incessantly, but isn't that all part of the fun and craziness of being in New York in the first place?
