When Taxi Drivers Attack

I went through an ordeal last night.

I was at Eudemonia for BATLL IX (Starcraft tourney!!) all day, and caught the last BART home. I got off at Daly City and walked towards the cab line. I was fourth in the group of passengers. The first two passengers got in to taxis without incident. The third passenger waved me ahead of him, so I was up, but there were two taxis at the “front” of the line — it seemed that one of the taxis was trying to cut (or maybe he was just trying to save space since there was a big influx of passengers coming out of the last BART) so the driver of the taxi closer to the curb was really pissed. He yelled at the passenger in front of me (who was waving me forward) to get in the car, saw that he was waving me forward, then yelled at me, “where are you going? Which of you is going farther?”

This made me not want to get into his car. I mean, I understand that in order to survive in a capitalist society, you have to take the fare that’ll get you more money instead of wasting your time with one that doesn’t go very far. It was just really abrasive.

I told him where I was going. He yelled at me to get in again and repeatedly. I got in. Instead of taking off, he cussed out the driver immediately to his right (the one that looked like he was “cutting”) and ended with “get the fuck out nigga”. This incensed the other driver such that he pulled ahead suddenly to block my taxi from leaving, effectively pinning us to the curb. So my driver got out of the car to cuss him out some more. I considered getting out of the car, but was paralyzed. Driver got back in the car. Other driver didn’t budge (so we couldn’t move anyway). My driver got out of the car to yell some more obscenities at the other guy.

At that point I finally got out. I walked away quickly and turned my back on the driver who was yelling at me to get back into the car. At this point, passenger #3 (the one who’d waved me forward) was still just waiting passively, and there was a fifth passenger who saw an opportunity to play the two warring drivers against each other. “He’ll take me to Oakland for $60,” he said to the allegedly cutting driver. “What’ll you take me there for?” Then he said, “This guy’s cutting,” pointing at the guy he’d just been talking to. “Nobody get in this motherfucker’s cab.”

I walked briskly away and went out of line of sight so that the driver would stop yelling at me to get into his car. I briefly considered going backwards in line but the other drivers were getting out of their cars to see what the commotion was about. It wasn’t worth it. I walked to the now-closed bart-station and yelled through the grate at the departing station agents: “What should we do if the taxi drivers are fighting?” Their receding backs said, “If they’re fighting, call the police” and zero fucks were given. I guess it happens all the time. And I can’t really blame them, they were off shift. I felt scared and alone.

I called Fritz to get him to pick me up. He hurried here. But as I was waiting, the driver whose car I was in briefly kept yelling at me, so I walked farther away. He went around the station to get closer to me and kept yelling for me to get in his car, so I walked across to the other side of the station. He then went around AGAIN to yell “I’m so sorry,” and try to get me to come to him, and I was freaked the fuck out. He left right as Fritz arrived.

I’m done travelling at night. I’m also buying a fucking car.

Also, this is cutting it really close for Iron Blogger, but I made it in before 3am!