Taxi Drivers Need To Pick A Rule And Stick With It

Here is a decree: taxi drivers need to pick a rule regarding the light on top of the taxi and stick with it. I can never remember whether this light is supposed to be on or off when the taxi is available (I think off, though I think it is called an “in service” light), and I don’t really care. If this was uniformly followed either way, it wouldn’t make a difference.

Recently, my wife and I were in downtown Denver on a Saturday evening for a work holiday party. We managed to take the train and mall shuttle down, but we know we would have trouble returning home that way afterward. The Parade of Lights was the same night and though it was to be over by the time we were done, downtown would be a mess and the shuttles and trains wouldn’t be running right (the shuttle stopped at Market street station from Union station and the D line wasn’t running any further downtown than 18th). We planned to take a cab.

Admittedly, it probably wasn’t too smart to think we would be able to get a cab. We knew how crowded it was going to be. All of the taxis we were going to be able to find were probably going to be full. However, we thought we’d try.

After all, it didn’t hurt to look, right? Well, it actually kind of did. The problem was that half the taxis had the light on top of the taxi on, and half had it off. Attempting to locate a free taxi in this way was problematic, because they were all already occupied. The light was meaningless.

We’d decide the light on meant the taxi was available. We’d go running for a taxi with the light on. Then the taxi driver would wave us away because the taxi was full. We’d then decide the light off meant the taxi was available. We’d go running for a taxi with the light off, but again the taxi driver would wave us away because the taxi was full. After some time of this, we started getting pretty upset.

Finally, we just walked from as far as we could go on the mall shuttle to where we could pick up the train (not easy for my wife who had worn heels and not brought other shoes), but not without incident. Is it really so much to ask that the taxi drivers pick a rule and stick with it? Sure, it might not have meant that we would have found an available taxi that way, but we would have at least not gone running after full taxis. If we’d been able to tell for sure whether every taxi we saw was already being used or not, we might actually have been able to find a taxi (or not uselessly expend effort).

Taxi drivers: obey my orders!