I had a not so great experience with a cab this week and I keep thinking back to what I could have done to make it a nicer experience. The feeling I have about the cab ride is anger, because the cabbie must have gotten his license out of cereal box or was covering for his brother who normally drives. The other problem was it wasn’t a straight shot. The Help and I had just left a jazz club nowhere near a metro and it was a little before midnight. The Help left his car at the College Park metro and the metro shuts down early on weeknights, so he had to get to the Green line and I had to get home.
So upon hopping in the cab, I ask that we go to the Shaw/Howard metro station (1.75 miles away) then my house. Maybe it was very wrong of me to think that the cabbie would know where the Shaw metro was. Fine. I told him to just go to 7th and R St. This is when the cabbie decided to argue with me and tell me there is no metro there. Gaaaaaah! Trying to explain where the friggin metro was it became clear to me that our cabbie had a basic knowledge of NW DC, he knew Connecticut Ave, and U Street and suggested those locations for dropping the Help off at those locations.
I think where I went wrong was mentioning the metro. Note, I will not do that again. I’ll just state the intersection and not even mention what’s there.
He did drop the Help off at a Green line station and I did get home, as I am very experienced in giving cabbies exceedingly clear & calm directions to my house, noting which streets he will need to turn down.
The cab system around here is sad, particularly when I think of London. I don’t just mean the cuteness of the black cabs, I mean cabbies who have the knowlege. Even the mini-cab drivers have a better clue, but then again, the mini-cab drivers have GPS.